Blackwater guards indicted by US to surrender on Monday

Washington: Five private security guards who are being charged in the US in connection with the killing of more than a dozen people in Baghdad are to surrender to authorities on Monday.

The lawyers for the Blackwater security guards said their clients would surrender and also accused the US government had overstepped its authority in the charges.

The indictments, which were reported on Saturday, follow the investigation of the killing of 17 Iraqi civilians in 2007.

Blackwater guards opened fire in a Baghdad neighbourhood, sparking an uproar about the use of private guards in Iraq.

Blackwater has claimed that its personnel came under hostile fire and responded appropriately, but FBI agents have concluded most of the fatal shootings were unjustified.