Blackwater Security Contractors Return to Streets of Iraq
21 September 2007
The U.S. embassy in Iraq has resumed limited road travel out of the heavily-fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, with security escorts from a U.S. firm involved in a deadly shooting Sunday.
An embassy spokeswoman says the decision to resume essential road travel with security personnel from Blackwater USA was made in consultation with the Iraqi government.
Iraqi authorities had suspended Blackwater's license after the shooting incident Sunday, in which 11 Iraqi civilians were killed.
Blackwater, which provides security for U.S. government civilian employees in Iraq, says its personnel acted "lawfully and appropriately" when the convoy they were escorting came under attack.
The U.S. military says coalition forces killed one al-Qaida-in-Iraq terrorist and detained eight suspects during operations in Baghdad and northern and central Iraq Friday.
The U.S. military also announced the deaths of two American soldiers on Thursday. One was killed in combat in Diyala province, and the other died in a non-combat-related incident in the city of Kirkuk.
Romania's Defense Ministry said a roadside bomb blast killed a Romanian soldier and wounded five others today in southern Iraq.
Also in southern Iraq, police say gunmen shot dead a top aide to the country's most respected Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Police say the aide and his driver were traveling west of Basra, when gunmen attacked their vehicle late Thursday.
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