US Security Firm Loses Licence to Work in Iraq

Blackwater Worldwide, the American security firm whose contractors killed 17 civilians in a crowded Baghdad square, is to be barred from operating in Iraq, after the Iraqi government refused to renew its license.

An interior ministry spokesman, Major General Abdul-Karim Khalaf, said the decision was prompted by what he called the guards' "improper conduct and excessive use of force" during the incident in 2007, which also left dozens injured.

Five Blackwater contractors surrendered to the FBI in Salt Lake City, Utah, last month to face manslaughter charges in connection with the Nisour Square shooting, which inflamed Iraqi public opinion and soured relations between the government there and the Bush administration.

The order, made public yesterday, means that Blackwater guards will no longer be authorized to protect US facilities, including the huge new embassy in Baghdad and American military bases around the country.

No time frame was given for the company's exit and it remained unclear if its employees would be allowed to continue guarding US diplomats in the interim.

A joint Iraqi-US committee is in the process of drawing up guidelines for private contractors under a new security agreement drawn up earlier this month. But Iraq has made it clear that it wants Blackwater to leave as soon as possible.

"When the work of this committee ends", Khalaf said, private security companies "will be under the authority of the Iraqi government, and those companies that don't have licenses, such as Blackwater, should leave Iraq immediately."

Blackwater, which earned more than $1bn (£708m) from the US government in the past nine years, has a bad reputation in Iraq, as it has been involved in nearly 200 shootings since 2005, a US congressional report said. Its staff had been immune from prosecution under Iraqi law until the new security agreement came into force.