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Washington: Private US security contractor Blackwater USA denied on Saturday it was involved in illegally shipping automatic weapons and military goods to Iraq.
The statement by the company, whose contractors were accused by the Iraqi government of killing 11 people in Baghdad this week, came after a newspaper report that federal officials were investigating whether Blackwater exported unlicensed military hardware into Iraq.
"Allegations that Blackwater was in any way associated or complicit in unlawful arms activities are baseless. The company has no knowledge of any employee improperly exporting weapons," the company said in a statement.
"This issue is completely unrelated" to Blackwater's US government programs in Iraq, said the company, based in Moyock, North Carolina. It employs about 1,000 contractors to protect the US mission in Iraq and its diplomats from attack.
The News & Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina, reported that two former Blackwater employees had pleaded guilty in Greenville, North Carolina, to weapons charges and were cooperating with the federal investigation.
Court records showed Kenneth Wayne Cashwell and William Ellsworth Grumiaux pleaded guilty earlier in the year to possessing, receiving and concealing between May 2003 and August 2005 stolen firearms that had been "shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce."
The records, which showed both men agreed to cooperate with authorities and testify about any crimes they knew of in plea deals filed last November, did not name Blackwater or Iraq.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki has suggested the US Embassy stop using Blackwater after what Iraq called a flagrant assault by the firm's contractors in which 11 people were killed last Sunday while the firm was escorting an embassy convoy through Baghdad.
The Washington Post reported in Saturday's edition the Iraqi government's investigation into the shootings had expanded to include allegations about Blackwater's involvement in six other violent incidents this year that left at least 10 Iraqis dead.
Asked at a news conference at the United Nations on Saturday about whether Iraqi investigators had videotape of Blackwater security men firing unprovoked on Iraqi civilians, Maliki said, "We've asked the Americans to deal with the investigation through an investigation committee to see whether there is a video about this (Baghdad) incident."
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