UPDATE: Blackwater in Another Deadly Baghdad Attack -- on 'NYT' Dog

By: E&P Staff The U.S. embassy in Iraq is investigating another deadly shooting incident involving its Blackwater bodyguards -- this time of the New York Times' dog, "Hentish," Reuters is reporting today.

The Times was silent about the matter until just after 5:00 p.m. when it reported the incident on its The Lede blog.

But staff at the newspaper's Baghdad bureau told Reuters that Blackwater bodyguards shot Hentish dead last week before a visit by a U.S. diplomat to the Times compound.

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

"The K-9 handler made several unsuccessful attempts to get the dog to retreat, including placing himself between the dogs. When those efforts failed, the K-9 handler unfortunately was forced to use a pistol to protect the company's K-9 and himself," she said in an e-mail to Reuters.

Ironically, a headline in the jobs section on the home page at the Times states today, "Employees explain the benefits of bringing their dogs to work."

Eason Jordan, the former CNN news chief and founder of Iraqslogger.com, recalled tonight on the Huffington Post blog that he had been bitten by a different New York Times earlier this year and ended up at a Baghdad emergency room. He claims that others have reported attacks by other Times doggies there.

The Reuters story concludes State Department investigators have made two follow-up visits to the Times compound to investigate the shooting of Hentish, correspondent Alissa Rubin said.

"They were very solicitous and I thought took the incident very seriously," Rubin said. "It's not a dog that everyone's close to in the compound. But it's a dog that's been around a long time. It lived its whole life there."

Part of the Times' item in its Lede blog follows.
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Investigators from the State Department have made two visits to The New York Times?s news bureau in Baghdad as they look into the shooting of one of the bureau?s dogs by Blackwater bodyguards last week.

Employees of the bureau said that the Blackwater guards shot the dog, named Hentish, during a search of the Times compound for explosives. A security team was conducting the search ahead of a visit by an American diplomat.

Anne Tyrrell, a spokeswoman for Blackwater, the private security firm, told Reuters that the dog had attacked one of Blackwater?s bomb-sniffing dogs.

?The K-9 handler made several unsuccessful attempts to get the dog to retreat, including placing himself between the dogs,? she said in an e-mail to Reuters. ?When those efforts failed, the K-9 handler unfortunately was forced to use a pistol to protect the company?s K-9 and himself.?

Alissa R. Rubin, deputy Baghdad bureau chief of The Times? bureau, said that State Department investigators had made two follow-up visits to inquire about the dog-shooting incident. ?They took the incident very seriously,? she said.

?While the dog wasn?t close to everyone in the compound, it was a companion to the guards at the checkpoint, where it was shot,? Ms. Rubin said. ?It was born right near the checkpoint and grew up there from the time it was a puppy.?