Decision not to renew licence prompted by shooting of 17 people by guards in 2007, Iraqi official says

Iraq has taken the first move in effectively throwing Blackwater Worldwide out of the country, by informing the US security company that it will no longer be authorised to work within its borders.

Iraqi officials said that the US embassy, which employs Blackwater guards, was notified by the Baghdad government last Friday.

An interior ministry spokesman, Major General Abdul-Karim Khalaf, said that the decision was prompted by what he called the guards' "improper conduct and excessive use of force" in a shooting that killed 17 Iraqi civilians and injured dozens of others, in September 2007.

Five guards from Blackwater surrendered to the FBI in Salt Lake City, Utah, last month to face charges in connection with the incident, which inflamed Iraqi public opinion and soured relations between the Iraqi government and the Bush administration.

The 17 Iraqis were killed when guards protecting a convoy of US diplomats opened fire in Nisour Square, in Baghdad. The guards were accused of acting like trigger-happy cowboys, who shot with no fear of consequences.

The interior ministry revoked Blackwater's licence after the shooting, and threatened to expel its employees, but the US ignored the order and renewed the company's contract the following April.

It is unclear when Blackwater will have to leave, as a joint Iraqi-US committee is in the process of drawing up guidelines for private contractors under a new security agreement that was drawn up earlier this month. But Iraq has made it clear that it wants Blackwater to leave as soon as possible.

"When the work of this committee ends," Khalaf said, private security companies "will be under the authority of the Iraqi government, and those companies that don't have licences, such as Blackwater, should leave Iraq immediately."

Blackwater, which has earned more than $1bn (£708m) from the US government in the last nine years, has a bad reputation in Iraq, as it has been involved in nearly 200 shootings since 2005, according to a congressional report.

Blackwater employees and other US contractors had been immune from prosecution under Iraqi law until the new security agreement came into force. The US failed to persuade the Iraqi government to extend the immunity of its contractors after a UN security council resolution authorising the US presence expired in December.

The Iraqi government said that Blackwater employees who have not been accused of improper conduct will be allowed to continue working in Iraq if they switch employers.