Iraq orders former Blackwater security guards out

BAGHDAD - Iraq has ordered hundreds of private security guards linked to Blackwater Worldwide to leave the country within seven days or face possible arrest on visa violations, the interior minister said yesterday.

The order follows a U.S. judge's dismissal of criminal charges against five Blackwater guards who were accused in the September 2007 shooting deaths of 17 Iraqis in Baghdad. It applies to about 250 security contractors who worked for Blackwater at the time of the incident, Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani told The Associated Press.

Some of the guards now work for other security firms in Iraq, while others work for a Black-water subsidiary, al-Bolani said.

Elsewhere, attackers bombed an oil pipeline in Rashidiya, north of Baghdad, cutting production in half at a refinery in the capital, the Oil Ministry said yesterday. Production at the Baghdad refinery was cut from 140,000 barrels a day to 70,000, said Oil Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad. - AP