Source: Triple Canopy to take over for Blackwater/Xe in Iraq

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Herndon, Virginia-based Triple Canopy has been awarded the security services contract in Baghdad, a State Department source told CNN Tuesday.

The order is effective Tuesday, the source said, but Triple Canopy's "in-country performance" won't begin until May 7.

Triple Canopy will take over the expiring contract of Blackwater, which changed its name to Xe last month. The State Department decided in January not to renew Blackwater/Xe's contract when it expires in May.

That followed a refusal by the Iraqi government to renew the firm's operating license because of a September 2007 shooting incident in which the Iraqi government says security guards - then employed by Blackwater - fired upon and killed 17 Iraqi civilians.