BAGHDAD, 24 December, 2020, (TON): The Iraqi government has urged the US to reconsider its decision of granting pardons to four former contractors of private security company Blackwater who were convicted over the 2007 killing of 14 civilians in Baghdad.

US President Donald Trump caused outrage on Tuesday night by pardoning four mercenaries from the Blackwater security company who were jailed for a massacre known as Iraq’s “Bloody Sunday.”

In an official statement on Wednesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was following up on US President Donald Trump's decision to pardon the contractors who carried out the massacre September 16, 2007, in Baghdad's al-Nisour Square, which caused international denouncement.

"The Ministry believes that this decision did not take into account the seriousness of the crime committed, and unfortunately ignores the dignity of the victims as well as the feelings and rights of their families," the statement said.

Blackwater was a private security contractor company hired to protect US personnel in Iraq.

The four guards Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, Dustin Heard and Nicholas Slatten were part of an armoured convoy that opened fire indiscriminately with machine-guns, grenade launchers and a sniper on a crowd of unarmed people in a square in the Iraqi capital.

The Nisour Square massacre was one of the lowest episodes of the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq.

It was accused by the Iraqi government of using excessive force in Baghdad.

An initial prosecution was thrown out by a federal judge – sparking outrage in Iraq – but the then vice-president, Joe Biden, promised to pursue a fresh prosecution, which succeeded in 2015.

According to the US Justice Department, at about noon that day several of the contractors opened fire in and around Nisoor Square, a busy roundabout that was immediately adjacent to the heavily-fortified Green Zone.

When they stopped shooting, at least 14 Iraqi civilians were dead - 10 men, two women and two boys, aged nine and 11.

Latten was found guilty of committing first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2019. Following a retrial, Slough, Liberty and Heard subsequently had their sentences reduced to 15, 14 and 12 years, respectively.

Iraqis have reacted with outrage to Donald Trump’s move to pardon four security guards from the security firm Blackwater who were jailed for a 2007 massacre that sparked an outcry over the use of mercenaries in war.