Blackwater guards used guns, grenades against unarmed Iraqis: U.S. prosecutors

U.S. security guards accused in a 2007 shooting that killed 17 Iraqis used machine guns and grenade launchers on unarmed civilians, some of whom had their hands in the air, U.S. prosecutors said Monday.

The accusations were revealed in indictments against the five guards, who were working for Blackwater Worldwide in Baghdad at the time of the shooting. Prosecutors in Washington unveiled 35 indictments against the guards after the men surrendered at a federal courthouse in Utah earlier in the day.

The U.S. Justice Department has charged the men with 14 counts of manslaughter, 20 counts of attempted manslaughter and using a machine gun in a crime of violence. The latter charge carries a 30-year mandatory prison term under the U.S.'s anti-machine-gun law.

A sixth guard who admitted to killing at least one Iraqi struck a plea deal with prosecutors to avoid extended jail time.

Seventeen Iraqis were killed in September 2007 in a shootout involving a number of Blackwater guards who had been hired by the State Department and were guarding a U.S. Embassy convoy in Baghdad's Nisoor Square.

The shooting occurred after the guards tried to shut down a busy intersection where Iraqis were conducting daily business following a car bombing in another part of the city, according to prosecutors.

Women, children among victims

The U.S. government claims at least 34 Iraqi civilians, including women and children, were either killed or injured without justification or provocation, national security prosecutor Pat Rowan said Monday.

"The tragic events in Nisoor Square on Sept. 16 of last year were shocking and a violation of basic human rights," FBI assistant director Joseph Persichini said.

Blackwater, the largest security contractor in Iraq,  has defended its guards' actions, saying the convoy was attacked before they opened fire. An Iraqi government investigation found the shootings were unprovoked.

"We think it's pure and simple a case of self-defence," Paul Cassell, a Utah attorney on the defence team, said Monday. "Tragically, people did die."

U.S. attorney Jeffrey Taylor said Monday the guards were authorized to act in defence only.

It's not clear, however, whether contractors accused of committing crimes abroad can be charged in the U.S.

It will be up to authorities to argue that the guards should be charged under a law that applies to soldiers and military contractors, which could prove challenging, since they were working for the State Department and not the military. 

As well, the Blackwater guards were offered limited immunity by the State Department in exchange for their sworn statements not long after the incident took place, meaning prosecutors will need to prove the strength of their case without depending on those statements.

Neither the guards nor their attorneys spoke to reporters as they entered the courthouse Monday in Salt Lake City. The Associated Press reported that the guards may seek to have the case relocated from Washington to Utah in the hopes of finding a jury pool that is more supportive of the war in Iraq. 

The guards are expected to ask a U.S. federal judge for bail.

The indicted guards are Donald Ball, of West Valley City, Utah; Dustin Heard, a former marine from Knoxville, Tenn.; Evan Liberty, a former marine from Rochester, N.H.; Nick Slatten, a former army sergeant from Sparta, Tenn.; and Paul Slough, an army veteran from Keller, Texas.

The sixth guard has been identified as Jeremy Ridgeway of California.

The charges were announced Monday afternoon after details of the indictments were leaked to the press on Friday.