CNN : Iraqi panel: Blackwater guards should face murder charges

Iraqi panel: Blackwater guards should face murder charges

* "Not even a stone was thrown at them," Iraqi official says of Blackwater guards
* Iraq says 17 Iraqis killed by Blackwater guards in Baghdad square
* Blackwater, Iraqi officials have starkly different accounts of what happened
* Kurdish border crossings with Iran reopen

October 8, 2007

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- An Iraqi government panel investigating last month's deadly shooting involving Blackwater security contractors calls the guards' actions "premeditated murder."

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Sunday that the investigative commission formed by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki accused the American company's contractors of indiscriminately firing on citizens and violating the rights of Iraqis.

The September 16 shooting in Baghdad's Nusoor Square left 17 people dead and 27 others wounded, al-Dabbagh said. Seven vehicles were destroyed.

Al-Dabbagh said the commission, formed September 22, determined there was no proof the Blackwater convoy was under direct or indirect fire.

"Not even a stone was thrown at them," al-Dabbagh said.

He added the contractors violated the rules of conduct and regulations for private security firms operating in Iraq.

"They must be held accountable according to the law," al-Dabbagh said, emphasizing that those responsible should be prosecuted for "premeditated murder."

He said Iraq's government is awaiting the recommendations of this committee and the joint Iraqi-American panel in determining how to proceed legally. It is unclear whether the work of the Iraqi panel has been completed.

Security contractors have immunity from Iraqi law under a provision put into place in the early days of the U.S.-led occupation. Video Watch how supervision has been tightened on contractors »

The Iraqi-American joint committee met for the first time Sunday to begin reviewing security operations. It plans to issue a report offering recommendations to the Iraqi and U.S. governments.

Last month's shooting has sparked fury in both countries and led to a series of new steps reviewing the role of U.S. contractors in Iraq.

The incident involved Blackwater security contractors guarding a State Department convoy. Blackwater is one of a number of private security contractors in Iraq.

Iraqi officials said Blackwater guards indiscriminately opened fire and killed civilians.

Blackwater said its contractors "acted lawfully and appropriately in response to a hostile attack," and "the civilians reportedly fired upon by Blackwater professionals were, in fact, armed enemies, and Blackwater personnel returned defensive fire."

Border crossings reopen

Five border crossings between Iran and Iraq's Kurdish region have been reopened, an Iraqi Kurdish regional government spokesman said.

Iran closed its border with the Iraqi region nearly two weeks ago to protest the U.S. military's incarceration of an Iranian arrested September 20 in Sulaimaniya.

The U.S. military maintains Mahmoud Farhadi, arrested while posing as a businessman with a trade delegation, was in charge of Zafar Command, one of three units of the Ramazan Corps of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani blasted the United States for the arrest, saying Farhadi is an Iranian civil servant who was on an official trade mission in the region.

The U.S. military has long accused Quds Force agents of training and equipping Iraqi insurgents, an allegation Iran vehemently denies.

Other developments

# A parked-car bomb near the Polish Embassy in Baghdad on Monday killed two civilians and wounded five others, according to an Iraqi Interior Ministry official. Last Wednesday, a bomb injured the Polish ambassador to Iraq, Gen. Edward Pietrzyk, and killed one of his security guards.
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# At least three people were killed and 14 were wounded Monday in a suicide vehicle bombing south of Tikrit in northern Iraq, police said. The bomber of a minibus loaded with vegetables detonated his explosives when police stopped the vehicle for a search at a checkpoint in Alam. Civilians and police were among the casualties. The blast also burned nine cars and almost destroyed a building.

# U.S.-led coalition troops targeting a Shiite militant in Baghdad on Monday killed five militants and detained three others, the U.S. military said. The military thinks the insurgents are hard-line Shiite militants, including rogue elements of the Mehdi Army, the militia of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Al-Sadr has ordered a suspension of militia activities, but some militants have not observed the cease-fire.