Once in a while, the ambiguous legal, political, and practical implications of Blackwater’s private security forces in Iraq create problems that are, to put it mildly, awkward.
Employees of Blackwater USA, a private security firm under contract to the State Department, opened fire on the streets of Baghdad twice in two days last week, and one of the incidents provoked a standoff between the security contractors and Iraqi forces, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.
A Blackwater guard shot and killed an Iraqi driver Thursday near the Interior Ministry, according to three U.S. officials and one Iraqi official who were briefed on the incident but spoke on condition of anonymity because of a pending investigation. On Wednesday, a Blackwater-protected convoy was ambushed in downtown Baghdad, triggering a furious battle in which the security contractors, U.S. and Iraqi troops and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters were firing in a congested area.
Blackwater confirmed that its employees were involved in two shootings but could neither confirm nor deny that there had been any casualties, according to a company official who declined to be identified because of the firm’s policy of not addressing incidents publicly.
As Steve Fainaru and Saad al-Izzi concede in their report, details about the incidents “remained sketchy.” Apparently, an Iraqi driver got too close to a Blackwater convoy. Was there a mistake? Who’s responsible? Who knows: “The Blackwater employees refused to divulge their names or details of the incident to Iraqi authorities…. Anne Tyrrell, a Blackwater spokeswoman, said the company did not discuss specific incidents.”
As a result, as with most incidents involving private security firms operating in Iraq, we don’t know exactly what happened and why. We do know, however, that Blackwater employees have vague legal standing in Iraq, little oversight, and the firepower necessary to do some damage.
In this case, we also know how ugly it got.
The officials described a tense standoff that ensued between the Blackwater guards and Interior Ministry forces — both sides armed with assault rifles — until a passing U.S. military convoy intervened.
As if the dynamic of the conflict wasn’t complex enough, U.S. troops are now interceding in a gunfight between Iraqi Interior Ministry forces and employees of U.S. private security firm.
Great.
