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FBI expert testifies on Blackwater massacre in Iraq

July 11, 2014 at 1:11 pm

Blackwater guards fired dozens of bullets into cars and people, FBI experts testified yesterday, in brutality in 2007 which left 14 Iraqi civilians dead, Al-sharq news website reported.

Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard appeared in a federal court in Washington as the second trial enters its fifth week.

Slatten, 32 years faces life imprisonment for the murder of an Iraqi civilian on September 16, 2007, at the Eagles Square in Baghdad. If found guilty he would face a sentence of life imprisonment.

According to the Iraqi investigation, 17 unarmed Iraqis were killed on the day while the US investigation estimates that 14 people were killed and 18 others were wounded.

Slough, Liberty and Heard are accused of voluntary manslaughter of 13 victims.

The Blackwater mercenaries were protecting the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the day, when six of them opened fire on Iraqi civilians causing the massacre.

FBI expert, Douglas Murphy said he visited the site twice to inspect the crime scene and, commenting on projected photographs in the courtroom, said that “significant losses” inflicted 11 cars he inspected in March 2008 and June 2009.

Murphy pointed to a white KIA which had 29 bullet holes in the front and a Volkswagen that had 13 bullet holes on the driver’s side.