BAGHDAD, Sept 17: Iraq ordered the cancellation on Monday of the operating licence of US security firm Blackwater, after it was involved in a shootout in Baghdad that killed eight people, a senior official told AFP.

Blackwater offers personal security to US officials working in Iraq.

“The interior minister (Jawad al-Bolani) has issued an order to cancel Blackwater’s licence and the company is prohibited from operating anywhere in Iraq,” interior ministry director of operations Major General Abdel Karim Khalaf said.

“We have opened a criminal investigation against the group who committed the crime.” On Sunday, a US diplomatic convoy was involved in a shootout in Baghdad’s Al-Yarmukh neighbourhood which killed at least eight people and wounded 13 others.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki condemned what he called the “criminal” response of the contractors guarding the convoy which, Washington’s mission in Baghdad said, had come under attack from insurgents.

“Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki condemns and strongly denounces the criminal operation committed by one of the foreign security companies in Al-Nissur Square,” said a statement from Maliki’s office, quoted by state television.

The US convoy came under attack on Sunday while it was travelling past Al-Nissur Square in the Al-Yarmukh neighbourhood of west Baghdad, Iraqi security officials said.

The private security contractors accompanying the convoy returned fire.

According to the security officials, nine people were killed and 15 wounded. Khalaf confirmed eight people dead, including a policeman, and 13 wounded.

Most of the dead and wounded were bystanders, the officials said.

A US embassy official said security vehicles of the “Department of State were involved in a shooting incident near Al-Nissur Square.

“They received small arms fire. One of the vehicles was disabled in the shooting and had to be towed from the scene.

“The incident is being investigated by the Department of State Diplomatic Security Service law enforcement officials in cooperation with the government of Iraq and multinational forces,” the official added.

Blackwater representatives were not immediately available for comment.

Lawyer Hassan Jabar Salman was hit by five bullets while trying to flee the scene in his car, he told AFP in Baghdad’s Al-Yarmukh Hospital where he was being treated.

Salman said he heard an explosion near Al-Nissur Square and saw the convoy two cars ahead of him.

“The foreigners in the convoy started shouting and signalling us to go back. I turned around and must have driven 100 feet when they started shooting.

“There were eight of them in four utility vehicles and all shooting with heavy machine guns,” he said as he lay wrapped in bloodied bandages on the hospital bed.

“My car was hit with 12 bullets, of which four hit me in the back and one in the arm.” Salman said he continued to drive fast and approached an Iraqi army checkpoint which also opened fire on him for fear that he was a suicide bomber.

“I hit a nearby truck full of gas cylinders and that is when the soldiers came to me. They smashed the window of my car and realised I was already bleeding. They took me to the hospital,” he said.

Salman said he had seen a woman and a traffic policeman killed and dozens of people hitting the ground to avoid the barrage of bullets.

A traffic policemen at the square on Monday confirmed that one of his colleagues was killed in the shootout.

“There was an explosion and then I heard shooting. My colleague was killed on the road while I ran to save myself in a nearby lane,” he told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Another witness Mohammed Hussein said his brother was among those killed.—AFP