Baghdad, March 3, (RHC).- A security official at the U.S. Embassy in Iraq claims that State Department officials tried to block any serious probe of the 2007 massacre of 17 Iraqi civilians by employees of the private military firm Blackwater.

The official, David Farrington, told prosecutors that State Department officials handling evidence at the crime scene wanted to ensure the Blackwater guards would avoid punishment. Charges against five Blackwater guards were dismissed in December after a federal judge ruled prosecutors had tried to use testimony that the guards had made under immunity provided by the U.S. State Department.

According to the New York Times, prosecutors in the case were also concerned Blackwater was trying to obstruct the investigation and had uncovered evidence that the company’s management had failed to report testimony from its own guards. One guard who witnessed the Nissour massacre described it as “murder in cold blood.”