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The article reports on the manslaughter and weapons charges filed against five former guards of Blackwater Worldwide, a closely held North Carolina-based company, for the September 16, 2007 shooting in a busy traffic circle in Baghdad, Iraq which killed 17 people. The Blackwater guards were part of an armored convoy providing backup to a State Department security team. They allegedly responded to a car bomb near a Blackwater security convoy firing in response to shooting from insurgents. It says that the incident strained relations between Iraq and U.S.

The article reports on the challenges faced by U.S. prosecutors in their case against five indicted Blackwater Worldwide guards who are expected to surrender to authorities on December 8, 2008. The five guards, who were protecting a U.S. State Department convoy, are former Army soldiers and Marines that were involved in a September 2007 shooting incident that left 17 Iraqis dead in Baghdad, Iraq. Tara Lee of DLA Piper says battlefield incident prosecutions are notoriously difficult to win no matter what the forum.

The article looks at the impact of the effort of the Iraqi government to restrict the work of State Department contractor Blackwater USA on the U.S. diplomatic efforts, reconstruction works and planned withdrawal of troops in the country. The restriction follows a shootout between Iraqi insurgents and security guards from Blackwater who were protecting a State Department convoy in Baghdad. Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell denied reports that the helicopters of the firm opened fire during the fighting.