Friendly rivalry

He admitted killing Mr McGuigan, a former Royal Marine who had been living in Tameside, and Mr Hoare, in August 2009. Former soldier Mr Milsom was with Mr McGuigan and Fitzsimons on the night of the shooting. He told the inquest how just hours after Fitzsimons arrived in Baghdad, Mr McGuigan shared a drink with them. The meeting began with friendly rivalry about their former regiments, he said, but deteriorated and the pair squared up to each other.

Mr McGuigan then said to Fitzsimons: "Come on then, give it your best shot."

Fitzsimons threw a punch, hitting him in the face, and Mr McGuigan, originally of Peebles, Scotland, replied: "You wuss. You punch like a girl."

Mr Milsom said he then stepped in to calm things down, before returning to bed and falling asleep drunk.

He said he didn't hear the five shots that were fired that night but was woken in the morning by a colleague who said: "Your mate has just killed two of our blokes."

The inquest heard the men had been drinking, despite a no alcohol policy. There had also been banter about Fitzsimons' sexuality after he showed colleagues a teenage boy online and said he was his current partner, the hearing was told. The men had been working for British security firm ArmorGroup, part of G4S, based in the Iraqi capital's fortified Green Zone. Since the killings, the Fitzsimons family have questioned whether their son was well enough to be employed by the security firm.

Deputy coroner for Greater Manchester South, Joanne Kearsley confirmed she would be seeking evidence relating to the employment policies of G4S.

The inquest continues.

Original Story found at BBC News

And while the four Blackwater guards on trial for the deaths of 14 of the victims claimed they believed they were under attack by an insurgent car-bombing attempt, no weapons or explosives were found on any of the dead Iraqis, despite an extensive FBI investigation. Instead, the official US investigation led to three men facing manslaughter charges, one accused of murder, and a fifth admitting manslaughter of other victims and testifying against his former colleagues.

But the 12 jurors who sat through harrowing evidence from victims and their relatives were not asked to assess the proportionality of the response. Like so many controversial encounters with security forces the world over, the crux of case is not whether the dead Iraqis posed a threat to the Blackwater convoy, but whether the guards’ belief that they did was a reasonable one.

From the perspective of soldiers working in hostile environments – whether as contractors or in the military – the distinction is a crucial protection and something that will have weighed heavily on the minds of a jury that included several veterans and US government employees. Other Blackwater employees – also working as guards for the US State Department – had been hit by a roadside bomb elsewhere in the city earlier that day.

Yet remarkably little evidence was presented to justify the guards’ ultimately false belief that the vehicles in Nisour Square posed a similar threat.

Both the prosecution and defence teams agreed that the primary reason for the guards thinking the convoy was about to be blown up was they had seen a white Kia sedan rolling toward them in what they claimed was a suspicious manner.

Defence lawyers allege the car was moving relatively fast and the guards shot at its engine block first to disable it, before killing the occupants. Prosecution lawyers allege the occupants – who turned out to be a medical student and his mother – were shot first and the car rolled forward slowly once the driver was dead because it was an automatic and his foot was off the brake.

The main alternative evidence presented to support the theory of self-defence concerned reports from some in the convoy that they had heard the sound of AK-47 gun fire and concluded it must have come from insurgents firing on the convoy.

Though this was not corroborated by any Iraqi witnesses, defence lawyers argued the theory was supported by a handful of AK-47 bullet casings found near the scene and several small dents on the Blackwater armoured vehicles and a leaking radiator that could have been caused by incoming rounds.

Prosecution lawyers argue that the damage was more likely to have been caused by fragments from the grenades that the guards were using and that bullet casings were a common sight on the streets of Baghdad at the time.

As justification for the killing of 14 unarmed civilians, several of whom appear to have been shot in the back allegedly while trying to flee the scene, such evidence may appear painfully thin. But jurors asked to convict the four defendants – Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard – need only reasonable doubt to acquit in such circumstances.

Since an earlier attempt to try the same case collapsed when a judge questioned the way the defendants were initially interrogated, for the many Iraqis enraged by the incident, this may be the last chance to hold the men accountable.