DURHAM, N.C. — The security firm formerly known as Blackwater has reached a settlement in seven civil lawsuits filed by families of Iraqis killed during what the lawsuits called “senseless slaughter” by guards for the North Carolina-based security contractor.
In an unrelated shooting involving Blackwater guards in Afghanistan in May, two former Blackwater employees were charged Thursday with killing two Afghan civilians after a traffic incident in Kabul.
The developments came a week after a judge dismissed manslaughter charges against five Blackwater guards charged with killing at least 14 civilians in Baghdad’s Nisoor Square in September 2007. The judge said prosecutors violated defendants’ rights by using protected statements the guards gave to State Department officials.
Those killings enraged Iraqis and strained relations between Iraq and the United States. Iraq banned Blackwater, which changed its name to Xe.
Two of the lawsuits sought damages against Blackwater and its founder, Erik Prince, in the Nisoor Square shootings. Settlement terms were not released.
Other lawsuits in the settlement involved Blackwater shootings in Baghdad and Hillah, Iraq, in 2006 and 2007.
In the Kabul case, former Blackwater employees Justin Cannon, 27, and Christopher Drotleff, 29, who were providing weapons training to the Afghan army, shot and killed two Afghan civilians May 5 in Kabul.
Members of the dead Afghans’ families said in June that the shootings were unprovoked. Cannon and Drotleff say they shot at a civilian car that tried to run them down.
