MOYCOCK, N.C., April 9 (UPI) -- The Fallujah ambush of four private security workers was a planned event, not a tragic accident, the New York Times reported Friday.
Blackwater USA, the employer of the four Iraqi security contractors, said an investigation of the deaths showed they were planned by members of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, said Patrick Toohey, a senior executive at firm.
The Iraqi men had promised the Blackwater-led convoy safe and swift passage through Fallujah, but instead it was suddenly blocked off the road, preventing any escape from waiting gunmen.
"The truth is, we got led into this ambush," Toohey, vice president for government relations at Blackwater, said in an interview, offering the company's first detailed account of the attack.
"We were set up," he said.
Two senior Pentagon officials said Thursday they could not independently confirm the conclusions of the Blackwater investigation, and a separate military inquiry was continuing.
