US extends Blackwater contract

6 Apr 2008, 1:14 pm   -   Source: SBS staff with agencies
A US private security company Blackwater helicopter flies over Baghdad. (Getty)

A US private security company Blackwater helicopter flies over Baghdad. (Getty)

The US State Department is extending its Iraq contract with security firm Blackwater, which is still under investigation for killing 17 Iraqi civilians last year.

The US State Department is extending its Iraq contract with security firm Blackwater, which is still under investigation for killing 17 Iraqi civilians last year.

A high ranking US official says security needs dictate the renewal of the contract, which is due to expire next month.

Last September Blackwater guards opened fire in a Baghdad neighbourhood, provoking Iraqi government anger and sparking an uproar about the use of private guards in Iraq.


Yesterday, the US military announced it had charged a civilian contractor in Iraq under US military law for the first time.

Alaa Mohammad Ali is accused of stabbing another contractor, the military said in a statement. It did not specify his nationality.

The statement said he was the first contractor charged under an amendment passed by Congress in 2006, which governs military trials for contractors accompanying US troops.

Ali has been held by US military authorities since February and will face his first pre-trial hearing on April 10.

He will be given the same rights as a US service member facing military court, the statement said.

The legal status of contractors in Iraq has been the subject of substantial controversy, especially since last September when contractors from the US security firm Blackwater were accused of killing 17 people in a shooting incident in Baghdad.

The FBI is investigating whether Blackwater employees broke any laws in that incident, which angered the Iraqi government.

The Blackwater staff were employed by the US State Department to guard embassy officials and it is not clear if they could be prosecuted under laws covering contractors accompanying the military, or other US laws.

The State Department announced yesterday it was extending Blackwater's contract for another year.
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