Piecing together the Blackwater shooting

updated 7:36 p.m. ET Oct. 8, 2007

BAGHDAD - Three black GMC Suburbans — each fitted with armored plates and bulletproof windows — made up the heart of the convoy. The front and rear were protected by Blackwater USA gun trucks, known as Mambas, each mounted with two belt-fed 7.62 caliber heavy guns.

The vehicles snaked through the checkpoints and blast walls of the Green Zone on another scorching morning. The temperature that day — Sept. 16 — would rise again above 100 degrees.

Kerry Pelzman, a USAID specialist on helping rebuild Iraqi businesses, schools and other infrastructure, rode in one of the Suburbans. Her appointment was about two miles from the nearest Green Zone entrance in a neighborhood of opulent homes once occupied by members of the Saddam Hussein regime.

Within a few minutes, Pelzman was again in a secure compound for a planning session on Izdihar — a U.S.-Iraqi joint venture company that was working to rebuild Iraq’s badly damaged services and funded by USAID on a three-year contract.

At about noon, a car bomb exploded about 200 yards away. Blackwater guards hustled Pelzman back into the vehicles, worried the bomb was the beginning of a larger attack. The convoy raced back toward the Green Zone.

Attempts by investigators to piece together what happened over the next hour have been like gathering the remnants of broken glass, spent bullet casings and blood-soaked clothes that were scattered around Nisoor Square. Each bit represents a part of the story — a version, a perspective — but have not yet yielded a full and mutually agreed rendering of what caused Blackwater guards to open fire.

Iraqi report faults Blackwater
An Iraqi government report — examined by The Associated Press — is the latest probe in a wave of inquests from Baghdad to Washington. It comes down hard on Blackwater, demanding it leave Iraq within six month and blames it for killing 17 civilians on Sept. 16. The previous death toll was at least 11.

The Iraq report — as well as witness accounts and statements from Iraqi officials to the AP — put forward new details on the deadly chain of events. Iraqi officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared possible retribution or were not authorized to provide details of what happened.

Blackwater and U.S. officials have refused to comment on the events. Blackwater has said in the United States that its convoy in Nisoor Square opened fire only after coming under attack. No Iraqi witness has corroborated that claim.

As Pelzman’s convoy was preparing to move toward the Nisoor Square traffic circle — just on the edge of the Green Zone — her Blackwater detail radioed for backup, fearing the explosion might be a diversion for a kidnapping operation against her and others in the compound.

At about 12:15 p.m., four additional Mambas arrived at the traffic circle. Their plan was to watch over the traffic choke-point until the convoy passed.

Witness: Woman screams, 'My son!'
What should have been a relatively routine mission went terribly wrong when one of the Blackwater gunners — in the last Mamba that arrived in Nisoor Square — opened fire on an approaching white car driven by Ahmed Haithem Ahmed, a 20-year-old third-year medical student.

He was shot through the forehead and apparently died instantly. The car — with the automatic transmission still in gear — continued moving slowly forward. His mother, Mahasin Khazim, a 46-year-old allergist, was in the passenger seat and reached over to cradle her son’s body.

“At first, there were five shots and after that I heard a woman screaming, ’My son, My son! Help!”’ said Sarhan Thiab, a traffic policeman who was on duty in the square.

“I ran with another policeman toward the car and we tried to pull the woman out. She was holding her son. His head was blown apart. We tried to stop the car, which was still moving slowly because the son’s foot was on the accelerator.”

Thiab said the Blackwater guards started firing at the car again.

“I tried to use hand signals to make the Blackwater people understand that the car was moving on its own and we were trying to stop it. We were trying to get the woman out but had to run for cover,” Thiab said.

Vehicle set ablaze
Continued heavy shooting set the car on fire, burning the corpses of the mother and son.

Hiathem Ahmed, a 46-year-old pathologist, was the father and husband of those first two victims of the shooting that day.

“My son and wife had dropped me near my hospital and went off to run errands when they were stopped in the square. I waited for them all afternoon, kept calling their cell phones. At 5 p.m., I called a relative who lives near the square.

“He told me that there was an incident and many people were killed or wounded. I went with him to the hospital morgue. All the bodies were recognizable except for two burned bodies.

“I was able to identify my son’s body through a piece of his shoe. I could tell the other was my wife because of a dental bridge.”

Ahmed said he would not remove his destroyed car from where it still sits near the square.

“I want it to be a memorial to the painful event caused by people who, supposedly, came to protect us.”

“My wife was a distinguished woman, a talented doctor. My son was a gentle and cooperative person. He was on his way to becoming a doctor. They died while they were fasting in the holy month of Ramadan. They died as innocent people. I ask God’s mercy on them.”

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