Iraq orders Blackwater out

BAGHDAD, Oct. 9 (UPI) -- The Iraqi government wants Blackwater USA to pay $8 million to each of the 17 families whose relatives were shot to death in Baghdad last month.

The government also wants the United States to sever ties with the private security firm within six months and to hand over the shooters for prosecution under Iraqi law, the BBC reported Tuesday.

Blackwater insists its employees were defending themselves, while an Iraqi investigation found they fired without provocation in the Sept. 16 incident.

North Carolina-based Blackwater is the largest of 28 private security firms used to protect U.S. officials in Iraq. Blackwater employs 744 U.S. citizens in Iraq.

Private security workers are immune from prosecution in Iraq but an FBI investigation into the killings raises the prospect of trials in the United States, while the Iraqi investigation said Blackwater's license to operate in Iraq expired in 2006, removing the guards' immunity, the BBC reported.

The Iraqi government said Blackwater guards have killed 38 Iraqi civilians and wounded nearly 50 other since 2003.