WaPo has details:
According to the report, the sequence of events leading up to the shooting began at 11:53 a.m., when a car bomb exploded 25 yards outside of the Izdihar financial compound, just over a mile northwest of the Green Zone. One principal was inside, accompanied by a Blackwater personal security detail identified as Team 4. A Blackwater team normally consists of three or four armored vehicles manned by multiple security contractors armed with assault rifles and pistols.
A Blackwater tactical support team, identified as TST 22, drove to the location to help Team 4 extract the principal. The two teams escorted the official back to the Green Zone “without incident,” according to the report. “It is unknown who was the target of the” car bomb.
According to the report, a third Blackwater team, identified as TST 23, was dispatched from the Green Zone to assist after the car bomb detonated. Upon arriving at Nisoor Square, in Baghdad’s affluent Mansour neighborhood, the report said, TST 23 was “engaged with small arms fire” from “multiple nearby locations.”
The report said TST 23 returned fire and tried to drive out of the ambush site. However, one of the company’s tactical armored vehicles, a BearCat, became disabled during the shooting. In the middle of the firefight, according to the report, the other tactical support team, TST 22, was ordered back out of the Green Zone to assist TST 23 in Nisoor Square, identified in the document as Gray 87.
Before TST 22 could arrive, according to the report, TST 23 had towed the BearCat and returned to the Green Zone. TST 22 found itself alone in the congested traffic circle and confronted by an Iraqi quick-reaction force. “Over the next several minutes, additional Iraqi Army and Iraqi Police units arrived and began to encircle TST 22 with vehicles,” according to the report. “The Iraqis had large caliber machine guns pointed at TST 22.”
The Blackwater team contacted the tactical operations center for the U.S. Embassy’s regional security office, which oversees private security movements, according to the report. The report said the embassy’s regional security office deployed the embassy’s air assets, believed to be Blackwater’s armed “Little Bird” helicopters, for “route reconnaissance and additional coverage.”
“The U.S. Army QRF” — quick-reaction force — “arrived on scene at 12:39 hours and mediated the situation,” the report said. “They escorted TST 22 out of the area and successfully back to the [Green Zone] without further incident.”
Apparently, we are not being invited to take this account too seriously:
A State Department official cautioned that the “spot report” is only an initial account. “They’re not intended to be authoritative reports of what occurred in any given incident.” …
The official, who declined to be identified because of the ongoing investigations into the shooting, said the report, which was dated the same day as the attack, reflected only what embassy officers were told by the Blackwater guards immediately after the incident. He said details could change as the investigations move forward.
One detail that doesn’t seem to have come out before is that only one U.S. Embassy “principal” was involved. And this official had already been whisked from the scene before the shooting started. So all the eyewitness accounts on “our side” are going to be from Blackwater guards. I’m sure Blackwater is pleased as punch about that. And the accounts of the shooting will come entirely from the members of TST 23, who are the ones accused of shooting indiscriminately at civilians.
In other words, the State Department’s official account of the shooting itself is always going to be based entirely on the testimony of the accused. How rich is that?
Also, let us duly note that the shooting itself had nothing to do with protecting embassy personnel. At best, Blackwater was protecting itself. At worst, … but why don’t we wait for version 2.0 for that?
*** Update, 12:05 pm ***
It looks like WaPo updated their story. I’m pretty sure this wasn’t there early this morning:
Separately, a U.S. official familiar with the investigation said that participants in the shooting have reported that at least one of the Blackwater guards drew a weapon on his colleagues and screamed for them to “stop shooting.” This account suggested that there was some effort to curb the shooting, with at least one Blackwater guard believing it had spiraled out of control. “Stop shooting — those are the words that we’re hearing were used,” the official said.