July 2 2009 Justice at last? 'unprovoked civilian shootings by Xe-Blackwater personnel in Iraq'

As Iraq moves slowly to its new reality, and no one really knows what that will be, some Blackwater personnel will sit in court to defend themselves. The memory of these roaming bands of extra-legal, accused murderers haunt many Iraqis.

A spate of unprovoked civilian shootings by Xe-Blackwater personnel in Iraq between 2005 and 2008 are detailed in an amended lawsuit filed late Tuesday in Virginia federal court.

[The Blackwater personnel in this photo are not implicated in this story, but the image brings chills to Iraqis who remember the brutality and mindless shooting of the mercenaries. Iraqi authorities accused Blackwater guards of killing 17 civilians and wounding nearly 30 in the September 2007 shootings in Nusoor Square in western Baghdad.]

The new allegations against several Blackwater-related defendants - now operating as Xe and other names under the control of chairman  Erik Prince include:

• the shooting of three Iraqi families in a mini-van that killed nine-year-old Akram Khalid Sa'ed Jasim and wounded his three-month-old sister, who was shot in the face, his mother, his father, and uncle in July 2007;
• the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Suhad Shakir Fadhil as she was driving home from work in the so-called Green Zone in February 2007;
• the shooting of Maulood Mohammed Shathir Husein, a 31-year-old married professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Baghdad in August 2005;
• the fatal shooting of 65-year-old Khalis Kareem Ali Al Qaysi, who was killed while he was being driven in Baghdad in March 2005;
• the severe beating of 35-year-old Iraqi photographer Safeen Hameed Ahmed Qadir in April 2008 as he took photographs at a Ford automobile branch in the Arbil province that was visited by a U.S. diplomat, and;
• the shooting of Husam Hasan Jaber, who was driving three passengers in Baghdad in a taxi cab he owns and operates.

[The full story]

Ali, 9, was one of 17 civilians killed when Blackwater security guards, escorting a diplomatic convoy, opened fire at Baghdad's Nisour square Sept. 16, 2008.

Comments

[Bruce Wallace]

Hi,
You can start with the 720,000 widows and do a little math from there.
b
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/02/23/world/middleeast/20090223WIDOWS_index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/03/07/iraq.women/index.html

[dashingdwl]

Over 1 million killed in Iraq? That's crap. Prove it.