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WORLD / Middle East
Iraqis to review security companies
(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-09-18 23:05
BAGHDAD - The Iraqi government said Tuesday it would review the status of
private security companies as anger over the alleged involvement of
Blackwater USA in a fatal shooting of civilians threatened to spread to
other firms providing protection for dignitaries and Westerners on Iraq's
chaotic streets.
An Iraqi soldier stands guard after a parked car bomb detonated at a
parking lot in central Baghdad, Iraq on Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2007, killing
seven people and wounding 23. [AP]
Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called for all contracts of foreign
securities firms to be annulled and blamed the government for failing to
protect Iraqis, noting the shootings occurred on a busy square filled
with Iraqi troops.
"This aggression wouldn't have happened had it not been for the presence
of the occupiers who brought these companies," al-Sadr's political
committee said in a statement issued by his office in the holy city of
Najaf.
It also called for a speedy investigation, the referral of those involved
to the Iraqi justice system and compensation for families of the victims.
A series of bombings, meanwhile, ripped through Baghdad, killing at least
18 people and wounding dozens, police said.
The developments came a day after the government announced it was
ordering Blackwater, the North Carolina-based security firm that protects
US diplomats, to leave the country after what it said was the fatal
shooting of eight Iraqi civilians following a car bomb attack against a
State Department convoy.
Amid allegations that the foreign security contractors operate with
impunity, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the Cabinet held a
meeting Tuesday and confirmed that "it is necessary to review the status
of local and foreign private security companies working in Iraq according
to what is suitable with Iraqi laws."
Al-Dabbagh also said the Cabinet supported the Interior Ministry's
decision to withdraw Blackwater's license, expedite an investigation and
ensure all those who attacked civilians were held accountable.
"The company should respect Iraqi laws and the dignity of the citizens,"
al-Dabbagh said in a statement released by his office.
Order No. 17, a law issued by the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq
before the Iraqis regained sovereignty in June 2004, gave the companies
immunity from Iraqi prosecution.
Hassan al-Rubaie, a member of the parliament's Security and Defense
Committee, said an investigative committee has been formed and members
would consider abolishing the immunity law.
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