October 19, 2007	Friday	Shawwal 6, 1428

WASHINGTON, Oct 18: Iraq put more pressure on the United States on Thursday to pull out security contractor Blackwater from Baghdad but the State Department said no decision had been made on the North Carolina firm.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told reporters at the White House Blackwater must be held accountable for its conduct in a Sept 16 shooting incident that killed 17 people and has enraged Iraqis.

“We would like .... Blackwater to leave Iraq, this is at the end their position, this is the State Department position,” said Dabbagh.

“There is an anger, a great anger among the Iraqis against Blackwater. They should be kept accountable, this is what the Iraqi government needs. It is a crime what they did in Baghdad, we have declared it,” he added.

But State Department spokesman Tom Casey said no final decision had been taken on Blackwater and the department was awaiting the outcome of several investigations, including a top-level review of security contractors overall.

“The position of the State Department is that we have an ongoing investigation and a senior level team looking at it. We have not made a decision. They have not yet made their recommendations to the Secretary,” he said, referring to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

“We understand that these are issues of great concern to the Iraqis,” added Casey.

Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said the company had not been told to leave. “We have received no official word requesting that we leave Iraq,” she said in an e-mail to Reuters.

Blackwater employs about 1,000 people in Iraq and the company has said its guards responded lawfully to a hostile threat. Baghdad has asked Blackwater for compensation of $8 million for each victim’s family.—Reuters