US federal prosecutors are looking into whether private security contractor Blackwater USA has shipped unlicensed automatic weapons and military goods into Iraq, according to reports.
Two former Blackwater employees have pleaded guilty in Greenville, North Carolina, to weapons charges and are cooperating with the investigation.
Blackwater , based in Moyock, North Carolina, employs around 1,000 contractors to protect the US mission in Iraq and its diplomats from attack.
Prosecutors are understood to be investigating whether Blackwater was shipping weapons, night-vision scopes, armour, gun kits and other military goods to Iraq without the required permits.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has suggested the US Embassy stop using Blackwater after what Iraq called a flagrant assault by the firm's contractors in which 11 people were killed last weekend while the firm was escorting an embassy convoy through Baghdad.
The Washington Post reported today that the Iraqi government's investigation into Sunday's shootings has expanded to include allegations about Blackwater 's involvement in six other violent incidents this year that left at least 10 Iraqis dead.
The newspaper quoted a spokesman for the Iraqi Interior Ministry as saying in an interview that those additional incidents included the killing of three guards at state-run media complex and the shooting death of an Iraqi journalist outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Yesterday, the US State Department said it would thoroughly examine the use of private security contractors to protect American diplomats in Iraq. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she had ordered a "full and complete review of how we are conducting our security details" but said dangerous diplomatic missions in Iraq had to go on because they were critical to US goals in the country.