WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th August, 2019) The families of the victims of the 2007 Blackwater shooting in Baghdad have the right to seek compensation as well as have a probe to learn the truth about the incident, Sarkawt Shamsulddin, a member of the Iraqi Council of Representatives told Sputnik ahead of the anniversary of the incident.
"For the families of the victims, they have the right to do that, they have the right to know what happened, and they have the right to seek compensations from anybody - even the Iraqi government and also the companies. But that should not be politicized. It should be basically just a legal issue," Shamsulddin said.
Shamsulddin noted that there are some attempts by some Iraqi organizations to relaunch the investigation into the incident.
"I mean it's their right to do something about it, but it's something about the families of the victims, it's far from political, it's not Iraqi government doing something against US government," he added. "It's families - they have the right to do it and I have no idea if that's going to take them to resolve anything - other countries did, but not sure if that will work."
Adnan Assadi, a member of the security and defense committee of the legislature, told Sputnik in July that the Iraqi parliament intends to reopen the investigation into the 2007 Nisour Square massacre, in which employees of US security firm Blackwater, now Academi, killed 17 people and injured 20 more in Baghdad.
Assadi stressed that the investigation would begin after parliament returned from its summer recess. As for why the Iraqi government never conducted another probe into the Nisour Square tragedy, Assadi speculated this was because fighting the Islamic State terrorist group (banned in Russia) in the country was the main priority.
On September 16, 2007, Blackwater mercenaries opened fire against unarmed locals while escorting US diplomats, claiming that the convoy was targeted by a car bomb. No explosives were found in the vehicle. Afterward, Blackwater was temporarily banned from Iraq. The Iraqi Interior Ministry said that year, citing the results of the initial investigation, that the mercenaries were fully responsible for killing the civilians.
After its own investigation into the tragedy, a US court sentenced three Blackwater guards to 30 years in prison for manslaughter and another one, Nicholas Slatten, to life imprisonment for murder, since it was determined that he had fired the first shot.
The incident with Blackwater guards sparked an international debate about the role of private security companies hired by the US government to work in war zones.
The private military company Blackwater, founded in 1997, was later sold and rebranded as Academi.
