World | Blackwater Iraq Orders Blackwater Contractors Out of Country Move affects 250 current and former employees By Newser Editors and Wire Services Posted Feb 10, 2010 1:57 PM CST Copied In this Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2007, file photo, Blackwater security contractors are seen inside a helicopter above central Baghdad. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed, File) Iraq has ordered about 250 former and current Blackwater employees to leave the country within seven days or face having their visas pulled. The order comes in the wake of a US judge dismissing criminal charges against five Blackwater guards accused in the 2007 shooting deaths of 17 Iraqis in Baghdad. Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani said the order targets security contractors who worked for Blackwater at the time of the shootout. He said all "concerned parties" were notified of the order three days ago. Blackwater, which at the time protected US diplomats in Iraq, is now known as Xe Services. Read These Next For these factory workers, an unexpected windfall. A request to turn off football game ends in a murder-suicide. Edited version of It's a Wonderful Life has viewers perplexed. Toll from UPS plane crash rises to 15 after a Christmas Day death. Report an error