The Iraqi government on Friday expressed "regret" about a US court decision to dismiss all charges against Blackwater guards who killed 17 Iraqi civilians in 2007.
US District Court Judge Ricardo Urbina acquitted five members of Xe Services LLC, formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide, of manslaughter charges involving the killing of 17 people in Baghdad.
Xe Services LLC is a private military company contracted by the US Army to mainly provide security for American officials during war time.
On September 16, 2007, Blackwater security detail was escorting members of the US Agency for International Development to a meeting in western Baghdad when, according to Iraqi investigations and US military reports, they opened fire and used excessive force on civilians in Nisour Square without the slightest provocation.
The Iraqi government's spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, on Friday reacted to the court ruling.
"Inquiries carried out by the Iraqi government clearly confirm that the Blackwater (Xe) guards committed a crime and used weapons when there was no threat necessitating the use of force," he said.
Al-Dabbagh stated that Iraq would "act forcefully and decisively to prosecute the Blackwater (Xe) criminals".
In defense of the ruling, the US judge said the defendants were "compelled" to give self-incriminating statements in response to a promise of immunity.
"The burden fell to the (US) government to prove that it made no use whatsoever of these immunized statements," Judge Urbina wrote in a 90-page opinion.
The commander of US forces in Iraq, General Ray Odierno, said the court's decision could create local resentment against other security firms operating in the country.
The ruling also "astonished" Iraqi human rights minister Wejdan Mikhail.
"There was so much work done to prosecute these people and to take this case into court and I don't understand why the judge took this decision," he told AFP.
Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=115119§ionid=351020201.
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