The US Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal by four Blackwater World-wide security guards who argued prosecutors made improper use of their statements to investigators in charging them with killing 14 Iraqi civilians in 2007. The justices refused to review a ruling by a US appeals court in Washington, D.C., that reinstated the criminal charges against the guards for their roles in the Baghdad shooting that outraged Iraqis and strained ties between the two nations.
The shooting occurred as the guards, US State Department security contractors, escorted a heavily armed four-truck convoy of US diplomats through the Iraqi capital on September 16, 2007. The guards, US military veterans, responded to a car bombing when gunfire erupted at a busy intersection. The guards told State Department investigators they opened fire in self-defence, but prosecutors said the shooting was an unprovoked attack on civilians.
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