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On September 16, 2007, employees of Blackwater Security Consulting (since renamed Academi), a private military company, shot at Iraqi civilians killing 17 and injuring 20 in Nisour Square, Baghdad while escorting a US embassy convoy.〔http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/18/world/middleeast/18iraq.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0〕 The killings outraged Iraqis and strained relations between Iraq and the United States. In 2014, four Blackwater employees were tried and convicted in U.S. federal court; one of murder, and the other three of manslaughter and firearms charges. Blackwater guards claimed that the convoy was ambushed and that they fired at the attackers in defense of the convoy. The Iraqi government and Iraqi police investigator Faris Saadi Abdul stated that the killings were unprovoked.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Blackwater guards fired unprovoked: Iraq police evidence )〕 The next day, Blackwater Worldwide's license to operate in Iraq was temporarily revoked. The US State Department has said that "innocent life was lost" and according to the Washington Post, a military report appeared to corroborate "the Iraqi government's contention that Blackwater was at fault."〔 The Iraqi government vowed to punish Blackwater.〔(Iraq determined to rein in private security guards )〕 The incident sparked at least five investigations, including one from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=FBI Opens Probe Into Blackwater )〕 The FBI investigation found that, of the 17 Iraqis killed by the guards, at least 14 were shot without cause. In December 2008, the U.S. charged five Blackwater guards with 14 counts of manslaughter, 20 counts of attempted manslaughter and a weapons violation but on December 31, 2009, a U.S. district judge dismissed all charges on the grounds that the case against the Blackwater guards had been improperly built on testimony given in exchange for immunity. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki harshly criticized the dismissal. In April 2011 a US federal appeals court reinstated the manslaughter charges against Paul A. Slough, Evan S. Liberty, Dustin L. Heard and Donald W. Ball after closed-door testimony. The court said “We find that the district court’s findings depend on an erroneous view of the law,” A fifth guard had his charges dismissed, and a sixth guard (Jeremy Ridgeway) pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and attempted manslaughter.〔 On January 6, 2012, Blackwater settled a lawsuit filed on behalf of six of the victims for an undisclosed sum.〔http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/01/06/2904465/blackwater-settles-with-families.html〕 On October 22, 2014, a Federal District Court jury convicted Nick Slatten of first-degree murder, and three other guards (Slough, Liberty and Heard) guilty of all three counts of voluntary manslaughter and using a machine gun to commit a violent crime.〔 On April 13, 2015, Slatten was sentenced to life in prison, while the other three guards were sentenced to 30 years in prison. ==Incident== The Blackwater guards' account of the incident differed from that set forth in an Iraqi government account. The latter claimed that as the convoy drew close to Nisour Square, a Kia sedan with a woman and her grown son in it was approaching the square from a distance, driving slowly on the wrong side of the road, and that the driver ignored a police officer's whistle to clear a path for the convoy. According to this account, the security team fired warning shots and then lethal fire at the Kia. They then set off stun grenades to clear the scene. Iraqi police and Iraqi Army soldiers, mistaking the stun grenades for fragmentation grenades, opened fire at the Blackwater men, to which they responded.〔A (''The New York Times'' graphic of the events that took place ), according to the Iraqi investigation.〕 In the account by the Blackwater firm, it stated that the driver of the Kia sedan had kept driving toward the convoy, ignoring verbal orders, hand signals, and water bottles which were thrown at the car, and continued to approach even when fired upon. An Iraqi policeman went over to the car possibly to help the passenger, but the vehicle kept moving and it looked to the guards as if the policeman was pushing it. In their view, this confirmed that they were under attack by a vehicle bomb, whereupon they fired at the car, killing both people in it as well as the Iraqi policeman. In response to the guards' killing of the Iraqi policemen, other Iraqi police officers began to fire at the Blackwater men. Since insurgents in Iraq often disguise themselves by wearing police uniforms, the guards could not be sure they were dealing with actual police. They communicated to the State Department operations center that they were under attack. A State Department employee who was walking into the department's Baghdad operations center on the day of the incident heard a radio call from the convoy: “Contact, contact, contact! We are taking fire from insurgents and Iraqi police.”〔 According to Blackwater vice-president Marty Strong, the convoy was hit with "a large explosive device" and "repeated small arms fire" which disabled a vehicle.〔 〕 Several sources have stated that the explosion was caused by a mortar round, though this is not reflected in the Department of State incident report. Blackwater has denied Iraqi allegations that one of their helicopters fired from the air during the incident. A State Department report stated that eight to ten attackers opened fire "from multiple nearby locations, with some aggressors dressed in civilian apparel and others in Iraqi police uniforms."〔 The report said that as the convoy tried to leave, its route was blocked by insurgents armed with machine guns at 12:08 pm. According to another US government report, "The team returned fire to several identified targets" before leaving the area and a second convoy en route to help was "blocked/surrounded by several Iraqi police and Iraqi national guard vehicles and armed personnel."〔 A US Army convoy, possibly the same one delayed by Iraqi forces, arrived approximately a half hour later, backed by air cover, to escort the convoy back to the Green Zone.〔 On September 27, 2007, the ''New York Times'' reported that during the chaotic incident at Nisour Square, one member of the Blackwater security team continued to fire on civilians, despite urgent cease-fire calls from colleagues. It is unclear whether the team-member mistook the civilians for insurgents. The incident was resolved only after another Blackwater contractor pointed his weapon at the man still firing and ordered him to stop. Three Blackwater guards who witnessed the incident said that they believed the shootings were unjustified. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Nisour Square massacre」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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