Blackwater Prior Shootings Show Pattern, Iraqis Say

In the ongoing controversy over Blackwater USA's role in Iraq, the Los Angeles Times details several earlier incidents in which civilians were killed by the private security firm used to guard American diplomats. One of the men wounded Sunday, when 11 Iraqis were killed at a busy Baghdad intersection, reports that his son was also wounded several years ago in an encounter with Blackwater.

In another incident, an Iraqi employee of the US government drove her car too close to Blackwater SUVs and was shot and killed. In a third, three security guards at the Iraqi state  TV network headquarters were gunned down. No charges have been filed in any of the six shootings Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki attributed to Blackwater. A frustrated interior ministry spokesman says of the Americans: “They don't have any names.” (More Blackwater stories.)