Blackwater Settles Iraq Killings in Two Separate Legal Cases

Ali Kinani, only nine years old at the time, was among the victims in the 2007 killings in Nisoor Square.

Blackwater Settles Iraq Killings in Two Separate Legal Cases

The mercenary company formely known as Blackwater has settled two separate wrongful death cases stemming from its notorious operations during the US occupation of Iraq.

The Charlotte Observer reports:

[The military contracting firm] has agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by six victims or their families in the Sept. 16, 2007 shootings in Baghdad's Nisoor Square, an incident that remains a flashpoint over the use of private contractors in war.

Charlotte law firm Lewis & Roberts represented the victims and announced the undisclosed settlement in a statement [Friday] evening.

"With respect to the Iraqi families and individuals who were plaintiffs in this lawsuit (it) provides them with compensation so they can now bring some closure to the losses they suffered," the statement reads.

The lawsuit was the last active civil suit stemming from the incident, in which five Blackwater guards were accused in 14 deaths.

On the same day, the company, now called Academi, settled with familes of former employees killed in another notorious event in Iraq. Al-Jazeera reports:

The US private security company formerly known as Blackwater has agreed to settle a wrongful death legal case with the families of four of its contractors killed in a gruesome 2004 ambush that was a defining moment of the Iraq war for the American public.

The families reached a confidential settlement with Academi, as Blackwater is now known, agreeing to the dismissal of their case before the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit based in Richmond, Virginia.

An administrator for the estates of the four dead contractors sued Blackwater in 2005 after they were beaten, burned and executed by Iraqi fighters while escorting a supply convoy in Fallujah.

Two of the charred bodies were strung from a bridge over the Euphrates River.

Images of the events disturbed many Americans at one of the low points for the US during the Iraqi occupation.

Blackwater, which changed its name to Xe Services and then to Academi, came to symbolise the US policy of hiring private contractors to perform work previously handled by the military.

###

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.