(AP)
Updated: 2007-09-21 10:59

WASHINGTON - President Bush on Thursday refused to criticize a US security company in Iraq accused in a shooting that left 11 civilians dead, saying investigators need to determine if the guards violated rules governing their operations.

President Bush speaks during a news conference, Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007, in the press briefing room at the White House in Washington. [AP]

Bush said he expected Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki would raise the shooting by agents of Blackwater USA when they meet next week at the UN General Assembly.

Al-Maliki has urged the US Embassy to find another security firm to protect its diplomats, saying he cannot tolerate "the killing of our citizens in cold blood." He called the shootings a "crime" and said they had generated "widespread anger and hatred."

"Obviously, to the extent innocent life was lost, you know, I'm saddened," the president said at a wide-ranging news conference. "Our objective is to protect innocent life. And we've got a lot of brave souls in the theater working hard to protect innocent life."

Officials of Blackwater, the Moyock, N.C.-based company, say its employees acted appropriately in response to an armed attack Sunday against a State Department convoy. Blackwater is the main provider of bodyguards and armed escorts for US government civilian employees in Iraq.

In a telephone conversation on Monday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asked al-Maliki to delay any initial action to the shooting and that any permanent measures be held up until all the facts were known, a senior State Department official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to provide details of the private discussion.

Maliki, however, insisted on taking a stronger line and warned that continued use of the contractors would further inflame tensions, the official said. Blackwater's operations in Iraq were suspended, prompting the US embassy in Baghdad to ban all road convoys by diplomats and other civilian personnel outside the heavily fortified Green Zone.

A US-Iraqi commission is looking into the shooting.

The shooting is the latest source of tension between Baghdad and Washington as Bush presses ahead with the Iraq war despite strong opposition across the United States and in the Democratic-led Congress. A week ago, Bush announced gradual cutbacks in US forces from the current peak of 168,000 soldiers. Even so, the plan would leave 130,000 US troops or more in Iraq next summer.

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