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WORLD / Middle East
Bush sidesteps criticizing Iraq shooting
(AP)
Updated: 2007-09-21 10:59
WASHINGTON - President Bush on Thursday refused to criticize a US
security company in Iraq accused in a shooting that left 11 civilians
dead, saying investigators need to determine if the guards violated rules
governing their operations.
President Bush speaks during a news conference, Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007,
in the press briefing room at the White House in Washington. [AP]?
Bush said he expected Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki would raise
the shooting by agents of Blackwater USA when they meet next week at the
UN General Assembly.
Al-Maliki has urged the US Embassy to find another security firm to
protect its diplomats, saying he cannot tolerate "the killing of our
citizens in cold blood." He called the shootings a "crime" and said they
had generated "widespread anger and hatred."
"Obviously, to the extent innocent life was lost, you know, I'm
saddened," the president said at a wide-ranging news conference. "Our
objective is to protect innocent life. And we've got a lot of brave souls
in the theater working hard to protect innocent life."
Officials of Blackwater, the Moyock, N.C.-based company, say its
employees acted appropriately in response to an armed attack Sunday
against a State Department convoy. Blackwater is the main provider of
bodyguards and armed escorts for US government civilian employees in Iraq.
In a telephone conversation on Monday, Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice asked al-Maliki to delay any initial action to the shooting and that
any permanent measures be held up until all the facts were known, a
senior State Department official said, speaking on condition of anonymity
to provide details of the private discussion.
Maliki, however, insisted on taking a stronger line and warned that
continued use of the contractors would further inflame tensions, the
official said. Blackwater's operations in Iraq were suspended, prompting
the US embassy in Baghdad to ban all road convoys by diplomats and other
civilian personnel outside the heavily fortified Green Zone.
A US-Iraqi commission is looking into the shooting.
The shooting is the latest source of tension between Baghdad and
Washington as Bush presses ahead with the Iraq war despite strong
opposition across the United States and in the Democratic-led Congress. A
week ago, Bush announced gradual cutbacks in US forces from the current
peak of 168,000 soldiers. Even so, the plan would leave 130,000 US troops
or more in Iraq next summer.
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