Blackwater In Canine Terror Attack

Hentish in happier times.

The U.S. embassy in Iraq is investigating another deadly shooting incident involving its Blackwater bodyguards this time of the New York Times's pet dog Hentish.

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Staff at the newspaper's Baghdad bureau said Blackwater bodyguards shot Hentish dead before a visit by a U.S. diplomat to the Times compound.

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Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said the dog had what looked like a knife and attacked one of Blackwater's bomb-sniffer dogs while a security team was sweeping the compound for explosives.

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"The dog handler made several unsuccessful attempts to get the dog to retreat which included shoving his thumb up its bung-hole and hitting it with a rolled up newspaper. When those efforts failed, the K-9 handler was forced to use a pistol to protect the company's K-9 and himself," she said in an e-mail to OBB News.

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The U.S. embassy employs about 1,000 armed and dangerous trigger happy burnt out ex- military Blackwater staff to protect American diplomats in Baghdad.

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The firm's role became a serious issue in Iraqi-U.S. relations when its guards opened fire on a Baghdad street in September, killing 17 people and their pets.

Blackwater says its employees acted lawfully in that incident as the ragheads looked like insurgents , the case is under investigation.

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Hentish has lived at the compound all its life and will be sorely missed though it wasn't missed by the Blackwater employee .