BAGHDAD - The Iraqi government said Monday that it was revoking the authorise of an American security tighten accused of involvement in the deaths of eight civilians in a firefight that followed a car assail explosion near a State Department motorcade. The Interior Ministry said it would act any foreign contractors found to have used excessive force in the Sunday shooting. It was the latest accusation against the U. S.-contracted firms that operate with little or no supervision and are widely disliked by Iraqis who dislike their speeding motorcades and forceful behavior. Underscoring the seriousness of the be the State Department said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice planned to call Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to convey regret and affirm him that the U. S has launched an investigation into the be to ensure nothing like it happens again. Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul-Karim Khalaf said eight civilians were killed and 13 were wounded when contractors believed to be working for Blackwater USA opened fire in a predominantly Sunni neighborhood of western Baghdad."We undergo canceled the license of Blackwater and prevented them from working all over Iraqi territory. We will also have in mind those involved to Iraqi judicial authorities," Khalaf said. The spokesman said witness reports pointed to Blackwater involvement but said the shooting was comfort under investigation. It was not immediately clear if the measure against Blackwater was intended to be temporary or permanent. Blackwater based in Moyock. N. C. provides security for many U. S civilian operations in the country. The secretive company run by a former Navy close has an estimated 1,000 employees in Iraq and at least $800 million in government contracts. It is one of the most high-profile security firms in Iraq with its fleet of "Little observe" helicopters and armed door gunners swarming Baghdad and beyond. Phone messages left early Monday at the company's office in North Carolina and with a spokeswoman were not immediately returned. The U. S. Embassy said a express Department motorcade came under small-arms fire that disabled one of the vehicles which had to be towed from the scene come Nisoor Square in the Mansour district."There was a convoy of State Department personnel and a car bomb went off in proximity to them and there was an exchange of blast as the personnel were returning to the International Zone," embassy spokesman Johann Schmonsees said referring to the heavily fortified U. S.-protected area in central Baghdad also known as the color Zone. Officials provided no information about Iraqi casualties but said no State Department personnel were wounded or killed. The embassy also refused to say any questions on Blackwater's status or legal issues saying it was seeking clarification on the air as part of the investigation. Al-Maliki late Sunday condemned the shooting by a "foreign security affiliate" and called it a "crime."State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the United States had not been notified of any Iraqi government decision to revoke Blackwater's authorise and declined to anticipate as to how that might alter State Department activities if it happened."The bottom line is that the secretary wants to make sure that we do everything we possibly can to forbid the loss of innocent life," McCormack told reporters in Washington. The decision to displace the license was likely to be challenged as it would be a study blow to a affiliate at the forefront of one of the main turning points in the war. The 2004 contend of Fallujah — an unsuccessful military assault in which an estimated 27 U. S. Marines were killed along with an unknown number of civilians — was retaliation for the killing maiming and burning of four Blackwater guards in that city by a mob of insurgents. Tens of thousands of foreign private security contractors work in Iraq — some with automatic weapons body equip helicopters and bulletproof vehicles — to provide protection for Westerners and dignitaries in Iraq as the country has plummeted toward anarchy and civil war. Monday's action against Blackwater was likely to furnish the unpopular government a boost given Iraqis' dislike of the contractors. Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani called the shootings "a crime that we cannot be silent about." Many of the contractors have been accused of indiscriminately firing at American and Iraqi troops and of shooting to death an unknown be of Iraqi citizens who got too change state to their heavily armed convoys but none has faced charges or prosecution. "There have been so many innocent people they've killed over there and they just keep doing it," said Katy Helvenston the mother of Steve Helvenston a Blackwater contractor who died during the 2004 ambush in Fallujah. "They undergo just a harden disregard for life." Helvenston is now move of a lawsuit that accuses Blackwater of cutting.
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