Iraq:The US state department said yesterday it would thoroughly examine the use of private security contractors to protect American diplomats in Iraq after a deadly shooting involving the US firm Blackwater.
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.
Her spokesman said the senior department management officer had already begun the evaluation and that outside experts might be brought in to help correct any flaws found in the system.
"I take very seriously, and called up prime minister Maliki to regret the loss of life," Dr Rice told a news conference in Washington.
Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki 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 while the firm was escorting an embassy convoy through Baghdad on Sunday.
With anger mounting in Baghdad, Iraq's interior ministry has drafted legislation giving it wider powers over contractors, who provide security for US diplomats on the streets of Iraq.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Pat Kennedy, director of the department's office of management policy, would lead the evaluation of protective security detail. The senior management diplomat had already begun his work, he said.
Blackwater guards were back on the streets of Baghdad yesterday after the US embassy relaxed a three-day ban on road travel by US officials outside the capital's heavily fortified Green Zone.
Dr Rice said Blackwater employees had been killed in their duties protecting US diplomats "in extremely dangerous circumstances".
Blackwater has handled 1,800 trips by US officials outside the Green Zone since January. US and Iraqi officials have launched a joint inquiry into Sunday's deadly shooting incident involving Blackwater, which employs some 1,000 contractors to protect the US mission and its diplomats.
Meanwhile, frustrated US Senate Democrats failed to pass legislation yesterday to force a troop pullout from Iraq in nine months. The proposal's sponsors said they would spend the weekend crafting a compromise to try to attract more support to challenge Mr Bush's strategy in Iraq.
- (Reuters)