News Service from House Harris

US: Iraqis demand harsh penalty for Blackwater guards

BAGHDAD, Dec 8 AP - Iraqi victims of a deadly shooting in Baghdad last year demanded the harshest penalty for five Blackwater Worldwide security contractors who surrendered to US authorities on Monday after being indicted in an incident that left 17 people dead.

The five guards are charged with manslaughter and using a machine gun in a crime of violence in the September 16, 2007, shooting in Nisoor Square. They were charged in a sealed indictment in Washington but surrendered at a federal courthouse in Salt Lake City, Utah.

"Their indictment shows the truth," said Hassan Jabir, a lawyer who was driving through the square on his way to court when the shooting occurred. "They kept on claiming and bragging that they were acting in response to an attack, but today, the truth was shown."

He said he was part of a civil lawsuit being brought against Blackwater. The Moyock, North Carolina-based company is the largest security contractor in Iraq and protects US diplomats there.

"I do not know about US law, but I think that they should receive death sentence because they killed innocent people and thus it should be an eye for an eye," said Samir Hobi, a 41-year-old taxi driver who was wounded in the incident.

Witnesses and an Iraqi investigation said the shooting was unprovoked, but Blackwater has said the guards were acting in self-defence after they were ambushed.

The Nisoor Square shooting became a flashpoint for Iraqis long angered over what they perceived as heavy-handed behaviour by foreign security contractors, who enjoyed immunity from Iraqi law.

A new US-Iraqi security pact lifts that immunity, but many Iraqis said a harsh punishment for those indicted in the Blackwater case was needed to keep others from repeating the crime.

Another taxi driver, Sami Hawas, who was injured in his chest, leg and left eye, said the indictments were a "positive sign that justice will be achieved".

He said he had received $US14,000 ($A21,700) in compensation but that was insufficient for the level of damage.

"The people behind the Nisoor Square attack should receive the harshest verdict and we should be given the fair compensation. The money that was given to me did not even cover the treatment expenses," the 42-year-old said.

A senior Iraqi police official, meanwhile, said US prosecutors will travel this week to the capital to meet with survivors and relatives of those killed. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorised to release the information, did not provide details.