Iraq vows lawsuits over Blackwater shootings

Iraq's prime minister said he would launch lawsuits in the United States and Iraq against an American security firm whose guards are accused of killing 17 Iraqis at a busy Baghdad intersection in 2007.

Nouri al-Maliki's comments Monday were his first public reaction since a U.S. federal judge dismissed all charges against five Blackwater Worldwide security guards charged in the Baghdad shooting.

His office confirmed the Iraqi government would file a lawsuit in Iraq and the United States against the security company.

"We have done what is necessary to protect our citizens and to punish those who committed the crime," said al-Maliki.

"We won't abandon our right to punish this firm," he said.

Blackwater contractors were hired to guard U.S. State Department diplomats in Iraq. Prosecutors said the guards fired on unarmed civilians at a busy intersection in 2007 and witnesses said the shooting was unprovoked. However, Blackwater said its guards were ambushed by insurgents while responding to a car bombing.

The incident inflamed anti-American sentiment in Iraq, and drove a wedge between the U.S. and Iraq. The shootings led the Iraqi government to strip the North Carolina-based company of its licence to work in the country. Blackwater has since replaced its management and changed its name to Xe Services.

After the shooting, the guards gave statements to State Department investigators in which they admitted firing their weapons. The admission was crucial because forensic scientists could not match bullets from the shooting scene to specific weapons.

In exchange, the State Department promised the statements would not be used in a criminal case. The deal meant prosecutors had to build their case without them and, in his ruling last week, District Judge Ricardo Urbina said the Department of Justice failed to do so.