An official Iraqi investigation into a deadly shooting involving Blackwater USA guards raised the number of Iraqis killed to 17 and said the gunfire was not warranted and those involved should face trial, the government said.
The final results showed that convoys from the North Carolina-based security company did not come under direct or indirect fire, before the men shot up a key intersection.
"It was not hit even by a stone," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said on Sunday.
A US-Iraqi commission also met for the first time on Sunday to review US security operations after the Sept. 16 shootings in which Blackwater guards are accused of opening fire on Iraqi civilians in a main square in Baghdad.
The panel is one of at least three investigations involving Americans.
The Moyock, North Carolina-based security company contends its employees came under fire first.
The incident has caused outrage among Iraqis and calls for the rules governing those protecting US diplomats to be overhauled.
The Iraqi investigative committee, which was ordered by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, put the casualty toll at 17 killed and 23 wounded, giving a higher number than other estimates, and it found that seven vehicles were burned or damaged.
It said the shootings amounted to a deliberate crime and recommended those involved be held legally accountable.
Al-Dabbagh said the Iraqi Cabinet would weigh the Iraqi findings with those of the joint commission "and subsequently adopt the legal procedures to hold this company accountable."
The recommendations also would include that the company compensate the victims after the three-member panel led by Iraqi Defense Minister Abdul-Qader al-Obeidi determined that Blackwater guards sprayed western Baghdad's Nisoor Square with gunfire without provocation.
The US embassy was tightlipped yesterday over whether those involved in the Sept. 16 killings would be handed over for prosecution.
"This and other matters will be discussed by the Joint Commission as they proceed with their work, best not to prejudge outcome of their discussions at this point," embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said.
Ukraine’s military intelligence agency and the Pentagon on Monday said that some North Korean troops have been killed during combat against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk border region. Those are the first reported casualties since the US and Ukraine announced that North Korea had sent 10,000 to 12,000 troops to Russia to help it in the almost three-year war. Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said that about 30 North Korean troops were killed or wounded during a battle with the Ukrainian army at the weekend. The casualties occurred around three villages in Kursk, where Russia has for four months been trying to quash a
FREEDOM NO MORE: Today, protests in Macau are just a memory after Beijing launched measures over the past few years that chilled free speech A decade ago, the elegant cobblestone streets of Macau’s Tap Seac Square were jam-packed with people clamouring for change and government accountability — the high-water mark for the former Portuguese colony’s political awakening. Now as Macau prepares to mark the 25th anniversary of its handover to China tomorrow, the territory’s democracy movement is all but over and the protests of 2014 no more than a memory. “Macau’s civil society is relatively docile and obedient, that’s the truth,” said Au Kam-san (歐錦新), 67, a schoolteacher who became one of Macau’s longest-serving pro-democracy legislators. “But if that were totally true, we wouldn’t
SUPPORT: Elon Musk’s backing for the far-right AfD is also an implicit rebuke of center-right Christian Democratic Union leader Friedrich Merz, who is leading polls German Chancellor Olaf Scholz took a swipe at Elon Musk over his political judgement, escalating a spat between the German government and the world’s richest person. Scholz, speaking to reporters in Berlin on Friday, was asked about a post Musk made on his X platform earlier the same day asserting that only the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party “can save Germany.” “We have freedom of speech, and that also applies to multi-billionaires,” Scholz said alongside Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal. “But freedom of speech also means that you can say things that are not right and do not contain
TRUDEAU IN TROUBLE: US president-elect Donald Trump reacted to Chrystia Freeland’s departure, saying: ‘Her behavior was totally toxic, and not at all conducive to making deals Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland on Monday quit in a surprise move after disagreeing with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over US president-elect Donald Trump’s tariff threats. The resignation of Freeland, 56, who also stepped down as finance minister, marked the first open dissent against Trudeau from within his Cabinet, and could threaten his hold on power. Liberal leader Trudeau lags 20 points in polls behind his main rival, Conservative Pierre Poilievre, who has tried three times since September to topple the government and force a snap election. “It’s not been an easy day,” Trudeau said at a fundraiser Monday evening, but