A preliminary Iraqi report on a shooting involving an American diplomatic motorcade said Tuesday that Blackwater
security guards were not ambushed, as the company reported, but instead fired at a car when it did not heed a policeman’s call to stop, killing a couple and their infant.
The report, by the Ministry of Interior, was presented to the Iraqi cabinet and, though unverified, seemed to contradict an account offered by Blackwater USA that the guards were responding to gunfire by militants. The report said
Blackwater helicopters had also fired. The Ministry of Defense said
20 Iraqis had been killed, a far higher number than had been reported before.
In a sign of the seriousness of the standoff, the American Embassy here suspended diplomatic missions outside the Green Zone and throughout Iraq on Tuesday.
“
There was not shooting against the convoy,” said Ali al-Dabbagh, the Iraqi government’s spokesman. “
There was no fire from anyone in the square.”
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