The US/Iraq:The Bush administration faced an embarrassing stand-off yesterday when the Iraqi government ordered the immediate expulsion of all employees of the security firm Blackwater USA.
The Iraqi ministry of interior took the decision after eight Iraqi civilians were killed and 13 wounded in Baghdad when shots were fired from a US state department convoy on Sunday.
Iraqis, quoted by news agencies, reported seeing helicopters, protecting the convoy, opening fire.
Secretary of state Condoleezza Rice was forced to intervene to try to have the ban reversed. She was planning to call the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki.
"She is going to express regret for the loss of life ... make it clear that we are investigating this incident," state department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
The state department has refused to confirm whether Blackwater was involved. The state department and reconstruction workers rely heavily on protection by Blackwater.
The Iraqi decision created confusion on the ground, with uncertainty over whether US diplomats were still being protected by Blackwater.
The dilemma for the US government is that it needs private security firms but a reversal of the Iraqi government decision would undermine the credibility of assertions by the Bush administration that the Iraqi government is autonomous.
There are tens of thousands of mercenaries - or private security operators - in Iraq. Jeremy Scahill, author of a book about Blackwater, put the figure at about 180,000 and described them as "unaccountable".
Blackwater has 1,000 employees in Iraq.
The private security firms are controversial, often hated by Iraqis who regard them as trigger happy. -