Blackwater is going home after killing dozens of civilians in Iraq by Corina Ciubotaru

The killing of civilians in Iraq has been the subject of many news articles in the last 3 months; they are killing each other with the aid of suicide bombers, they get shot by security companies or they die because they were too close to an exploding vehicle. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are dead and there is no way of knowing how many more there will be until peace is established in the region. But the event that really stood out the most in this news is the Blackwater incident, where a private U.S. security company has opened fire and killed 17 civilians on September 16th apparently for no reason at all. Investigations by Iraqi officials clearly point out that the guards started shooting out of the blue, with witnesses claiming no shot was fired to provoke them, and that soon after the convoy of four armored trucks opened fire, Blackwater helicopters joined them. Following these findings, the Bush administration was asked to remove the security company from the country and replace it, and Blackwater itself was asked to pay $8 million in compensation to each family of the killed civilians. Dyncorp and Triple Canopy are the other two security companies working to protect American officials there and it's likely they will try to take over Blackwater's business. These companies are not subject to martial law since they are not members of the military so their employees have been sent to Iraq on top of the thousands other soldiers. Their numbers vary in estimations between 30,000 and 45,000.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071014/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_blackwater;_ylt=AnC_n.shKTbEpohCDkeWUl6s0NUE

by Corina Ciubotaru for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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