Blackwater Settles With The Families of Those Killed In Fallujah

In 2004 four employees of Blackwater security were killed in an ambush in while escorting a convoy of lorries passing through the Iraqi city of Fallujah.

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.

Blackwater killings: 'US at fault'

Private security company, now known as Xe Services, says responsibilty for 2007 Iraq killings lies with US government. The security company formerly known as Blackwater has told a US federal judge that the US government, and not the company itself, should be held accountable for a 2007 shooting by its contractors that killed 17 Iraqis in Nisour Square in Baghdad. Lawyers for the company, now known as Xe Services, argued in court on Thursday that Blackwater contractors were essentially acting as employees of the US government because they were providing security to State Department personnel. The North Carolina-based company and several of its contractors are seeking the dismissal of a lawsuit that was filed on behalf of three people killed in the shooting: Ali Kinani, Abrahem Abed Al Mafraje and Mahde Sahab Naser Shamake. The lawsuit accuses the parties of wrongful death and negligence, and seeks punitive damages.