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Lawsuit accuses Blackwater guards of ignoring orders.

The AP reports that a lawsuit filed Monday on behalf of five Iraqis who were killed and two who were injured in the September Blackwater shootout accuses Blackwater bodyguards “of ignoring a direct order and abandoning their post shortly before taking part” in the shootings:

Blackwater and State Department personnel staffing a tactical operations center “expressly directed the Blackwater shooters to stay with the official and refrain from leaving the secure area,” the complaint says. “Reasonable discovery will establish that the Blackwater shooters ignored those directives.”

Additionally, the lawsuit notes: “One of Blackwater’s own shooters tried to stop his colleagues from indiscriminately firing upon the crowd of innocent civilians but he was unsuccessful in his efforts.”

The complaint also accuses Blackwater of “failing to give drug tests to its guards in Baghdad — even though an estimated one in four of them was using steroids or other ‘judgment altering substances.’”

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