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Iraq says Blackwater guards fired first

An investigation raises the death toll from the Sept. 16 incident to 17.

BAGHDAD - An official Iraqi investigation into a deadly shooting involving Blackwater USA security guards raised the number of Iraqis killed from 11 to 17 and found the gunfire was unwarranted, the government said Sunday. It also said the shootings amounted to a deliberate crime and recommended those involved face trial.

The Blackwater guards are accused of opening fire on Iraqi civilians in a main square in Baghdad on Sept. 16. They claimed they came under fire first.

The Iraqi investigative committee, which was ordered by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, found that convoys from the Moyock, N.C., security company did not come under direct or indirect fire before the men shot up the intersection.

"It was not hit even by a stone," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement.

The incident has outraged Iraqis and brought calls for an overhaul to the rules governing private contractors such as Blackwater, which provides heavily armed security for U.S. diplomats serving in Baghdad.

The Sept. 16 incident was one of at least six involving deaths allegedly caused by Blackwater that authorities here have brought to the attention of the Americans.

Also Sunday

Violence: Across the Iraqi capital, bombings killed at least nine Iraqis in three separate attacks, including one near the Iranian Embassy, police said.

Security: In a raid near the northern city of Kirkuk, Iraqi security forces arrested a suspected al-Qaida member and seized a cache of 60 roadside bombs and about 90 pounds of chlorine powder, commonly used for explosives by insurgents, authorities said.

[Last modified October 8, 2007, 00:39:04]