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Associated PressIraqi PM: Shootings 'cannot be accepted'By JOHN DANISZEWSKI and TAREK EL-TABLAWY, Associated Press Writers
NEW YORK - Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Sunday the shooting deaths of civilians — allegedly at the hands of Blackwater USA guards — and other violence involving the company pose "serious challenges to the sovereignty of Iraq" and cannot be accepted.
"The Iraqi government is responsible for its citizens and it cannot be accepted for a security company to carry out a killing," he told The Associated Press, speaking in his New York hotel suite ahead of his appearance at the U.N. General Assembly. Noting that Blackwater has been linked to at least seven incidents involving gunfire on Iraqi civilians, he added: "There are serious challenges to the sovereignty of Iraq." In Arabic, he used the word "tajawiz" which can be translated either as "affronts" or "challenges."
However, Maliki left open the possibility that Iraq and the United States would work toward a solution to the problem of Blackwater. "We have coordinated with the American side to establish a joint committee to ascertain the facts and hold accountable" those responsible, he said.
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Speaking in a calm voice, al-Maliki was dismissive of some of the criticism directed at him by Washington politicians in recent months. Some members of Congress have said al-Maliki is not forceful enough in pressing for political reconciliation and achieving benchmarks meant to measure progress in the four-year U.S. intervention in Iraq.
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