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Shooting draws Maliki criticism

The U.S. should find another security company, he says.

BAGHDAD - Iraq's prime minister Wednesday disputed Blackwater USA's version of a weekend shooting that left at least 11 people dead, saying he cannot tolerate "the killing of our citizens in cold blood."

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki suggested that the U.S. Embassy should find another company to protect its diplomats and that Blackwater "should be held accountable."

Eager to contain the crisis, the State Department said Wednesday a joint U.S.-Iraqi investigative commission will be formed.

The size and composition of the commission have yet to be determined but its members are charged with assessing the results of both U.S. and Iraqi investigations of Sunday's incident, reaching a common conclusion about what happened and recommending possible changes to the way in which the embassy and its contractors handle security, the State Department said.

More witnesses came forward saying they saw Blackwater security guards firing at civilians in the Mansour district of western Baghdad on Sunday.

Land travel by U.S. diplomats and other civilian officials outside the fortified Green Zone remained suspended for a second day after Iraqi authorities ordered Blackwater to stop working as a separate Iraqi investigation continues.

Blackwater spokeswoman Anne E. Tyrrell said in a statement Monday that its employees acted "lawfully and appropriately" in response to an armed attack against a State Department convoy.

Developments

More refugees: The Bush administration, acknowledging a moral obligation, intends to sharply increase the number of Iraqi refugees it will admit to the United States next year, a senior State Department official said Wednesday. So far this year, 900 have been given refuge in this country, Ellen Sauerbrey, an assistant secretary of state, told the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom at a hearing on Capitol Hill.

National Guard: After six years at war, some Army National Guard units are still struggling with less than half the equipment they need to do their jobs at home, Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard, said Wednesday. He said it will take an extra $13-billion over the next five years to get them 90 percent of what they need.

In Iraq

-A U.S. soldier was killed during combat operations in the west of the Iraqi capital and another one died of non-battle related causes, the military said.

-Iraqi troops killed 14 militants in the northern city of Mosul after a failed suicide car bomb attack.

-U.S troops captured 11 suspected al-Qaida in Iraq insurgents, five of whom were on a wanted list, during operations in the Tigris River valley in the country's north, the military said.

-Iraq's foreign minister said authorities have arrested a man suspected of organizing the murder of four Russian diplomats in Baghdad last year, Russian news agencies reported.

[Last modified September 20, 2007, 01:29:54]