BAGHDAD, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- U.S. prosecutors will appeal to reinstate charges against five Blackwater guards charged with shooting Iraqi civilians, Vice President Joe Biden said Saturday.
Biden, on a trip to Iraq, said he was "disappointed" by U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina's dismissal of charges against the guards, CNN reported. The vice president talked to reporters during an appearance with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.
"The United States is determined to hold accountable anyone who commits crimes against the Iraqi people," Biden said.
The gunfire, allegedly unprovoked, killed 17 civilians in a Baghdad square in 2007. At the time, U.S. contractors were immune from prosecution in Iraqi courts.
David Schertler, representing one of the defendants, Dustin Heard, said Biden's statement was "political."
Urbina, in a 90-page opinion, said prosecutors violated the defendants' Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination by using statements they gave federal investigators immediately after the shooting.
A sixth Blackwater guard pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in 2008.
