page_title: Nisour Square massacre
hierarchical_section_title: Nisour Square massacre
caption_attribution_description: English: Election posters for the Iraqi parliamentary election in 2010 on the Nisour square in Bagdad. At the left of the picture, the memorial of the square. Deutsch: Wahlkampfplakate während der Irakischen Parlamentswahl im Jahr 2010 Français&#160;: Posters électoraux sur la place Nissour, à Bagdad, en Irak, pendant les élections parlementaires de 2010. À gauche de l'image, on peut voir le parc et le mémorial de la place.
context_page_description: The Nisour Square Massacre occurred on September 16, 2007 when employees of Blackwater Security Consulting, a private military company contracted by the US government to provide security services in Iraq, shot at Iraqi civilians, killing 17 and injuring 20 in Nisour Square, Baghdad, while escorting a U.S. embassy convoy. 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. The next day, Blackwater Worldwide's license to operate in Iraq was temporarily revoked. The U.S. 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.
context_section_description: The Nisour Square Massacre occurred on September 16, 2007 when employees of Blackwater Security Consulting (now Academi), a private military company contracted by the US government to provide security services in Iraq, shot at Iraqi civilians, killing 17 and injuring 20 in Nisour Square, Baghdad, while escorting a U.S. embassy convoy.  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. The next day, Blackwater Worldwide's license to operate in Iraq was temporarily revoked. The U.S. 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. The incident sparked at least five investigations, including one from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. 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 U.S. 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. 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.
  On August 4, 2017, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit tossed Slatten's murder conviction and ordered the other defendants to be re-sentenced.  A new trial was also recommended for Slatten, on the grounds that it was unjustifiable to try him with his co-defendants, and that he should have been tried separately. In December 2018, Slatten was once again convicted by a jury of murder. On August 14, 2019, Slatten was once again sentenced to life in prison.
caption: Election posters at the scene of the Blackwater Baghdad shootings in Nisour Square, Baghdad (2010)
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