Blackwater Guards Charged With Manslaughter

Five former Blackwater guards involved in a 2007 shooting that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead turned themselves in today and were charged with voluntary manslaughter, attempted manslaughter, and using firearms in the commission of a crime, CNN reports. The men, all in their 20s, were arraigned in Salt Lake City and face hundreds of years in potential sentences on the charges in the 35-count federal indictments.

Defense attorneys are expected to challenge the Justice Department's jurisdiction—at issue because Blackwater was working for the State Department, not the military—and to push for a change of venue from Washington. An FBI investigation determined that the shootings were unprovoked, and the Iraqi government ruled the killings "premeditated murder."
(More Blackwater stories.)