[NYTr] New York Times in Iraq: Blackwater shot our dog

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Reuters - Dec 18, 2007
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL1819755220071218?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&sp=true

New York Times in Iraq: "Blackwater shot our dog"

Staff at the newspaper's Baghdad bureau said Blackwater bodyguards shot
Hentish dead last week before a visit by a U.S. diplomat to the Times
compound.

Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said the dog had attacked one of
Blackwater's bomb-sniffer dogs while a security team was sweeping the
compound for explosives.

"The K-9 handler made several unsuccessful attempts to get the dog to
retreat, including placing himself between the dogs. When those efforts
failed, the K-9 handler unfortunately was forced to use a pistol to
protect the company's K-9 and himself," she said in an e-mail to
Reuters.

The U.S. embassy employs about 1,000 armed Blackwater staff to protect
American diplomats in Baghdad.

The firm's role became a serious issue in Iraqi-U.S. relations when its
guards opened fire on a Baghdad street in September, killing 17 people.
Blackwater says its employees acted lawfully in that incident, which is
under investigation.

State Department investigators have made two follow-up visits to the
Times compound to investigate the shooting of Hentish, correspondent
Alissa Rubin said.

"They were very solicitous and I thought took the incident very
seriously," Rubin said. "It's not a dog that everyone's close to in the
compound.

"But it's a dog that's been around a long time. It lived its whole life
there."

(Reporting by Peter Graff; editing by Robert Woodward)