A gun battle that left 8 civilians dead has cost the security firm Blackwater, their license to operate within Iraq.
The ministry said the incident began around midday, when a convoy of sport utility vehicles came under fire from unidentified gunmen in the square.
The men in the SUVs, described by witnesses as Westerners, returned fire, and the witnesses said the vehicles are that Western security firms use.
A witness told The Associated Press that he heard an explosion before the gunfire began.
"We saw a convoy of SUVs passing in the street nearby," Hussein Abdul-Abbas, owner of a mobile phone store in the area, told the AP. "One minute later, we heard the sound of a bomb explosion followed by gunfire that lasted for 20 minutes between gunmen and the convoy people who were foreigners and dressed in civilian clothes. Everybody in the street started to flee immediately."
So these men were fired upon, returned fire, and now they are losing their license to operate within the country. The investigation is ongoing, but there are a few problems I have with this.
Did these men actually kill the civilians? There was an explosion, so did that kill the civilians? Did the people who fired upon the convoy kill these people?
If they did indeed kill these people, then let them stand trial for it. However, revoking the license of the security company will have dire, long term consequences that I don't think the Iraqi's have thought through.
25,000 Blackwater employees are in Iraq right now. You take out 25,000 security folks and now you have a real problem on your hands. Who's going to provide security to those that they now have to leave in the open? It certainly appears that this revoking is a "feel good" response, but I don't know if they know what they're doing.
Travis
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