Iraq will review all security companies working in the country after a shooting involving guards from the US firm Blackwater, the government said today.
The government said the cabinet supported an Interior Ministry decision to "halt the licence" of Blackwater, which provides security to the US embassy and its diplomats, and open an open investigation into the shooting last Sunday.
Iraq's Interior Ministry said 11 people were killed when Blackwater contractors opened fire at random after mortar rounds landed near the convoy.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice telephoned Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Monday to express regret over the death of innocent civilians, which the State Department said occurred during an attack on a US convoy.
Blackwater said its guards had reacted "lawfully and appropriately" to a hostile attack. It also said late on Monday it had received no official notice from Iraq's Interior Ministry.
US officials in Baghdad have yet to clarify the legal status of foreign security contractors in Iraq, including whether they could be liable for prosecution by Iraqi authorities.
The latest bombings in Baghdad came after Sunni Islamist al-Qaeda militants pledged a renewed campaign of violence to mark the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which started last week.
In fresh violence, four car bombs in Baghdad killed 17 people and wounded 50, police said.
