BAGHDAD: US security firm Blackwater ended its operations in Iraq yesterday closing a controversial era for the company whose guards shot dead 17 civilians in Baghdad in 2007.
“The task order for security protection operations held by Blackwater comes to an end today in Baghdad,” American Embassy spokeswoman Susan Ziadeh said, adding that Triple Canopy will replace it.
Triple Canopy, a Virginia-based firm, was appointed at the end of March by the US State Department to take over the multimillion-dollar contract to protect US government personnel working in Iraq. Linked agreements such as that for Presidential Airways, part of Blackwater that operates helicopter escorts throughout the country for secure air travel, will expire soon, Ziadeh added.
The State Department refused to renew annual contracts for Blackwater which renamed itself Xe after the Iraq government banned it in January over the killings in Baghdad’s Nisur Square on Sept. 16, 2007.
An Iraqi investigation found that 17 civilians died and 20 were wounded when Blackwater guards opened fire with automatic weapons while escorting an American diplomatic convoy through the square. US prosecutors say 14 civilians were killed in the incident.
Five former Blackwater guards pleaded not guilty at a federal court in Washington in January to manslaughter charges. The shooting focused a spotlight on the shadowy and highly lucrative operations of private security operations. Blackwater guards were reported to earn as much as $1,000 a day each in Iraq.
Anne Tyrrell, a spokeswoman for Xe, said the firm remains proud of its work in Iraq. “When the US government initially asked for our help to assist with an immediate need to protect Americans in Iraq, we answered that call and performed well,” she said in comments e-mailed to AFP. Blackwater first came under scrutiny on March 31, 2004, when four of its employees were killed by an angry mob in Fallujah, then a Sunni Arab insurgent stronghold.
The crowd mutilated their bodies and strung them from a bridge, shocking images that were broadcast worldwide and led to a monthlong assault on Fallujah that left 36 US soldiers, 200 insurgents and 600 civilians dead.
