[JURIST] The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) [advocacy website] Wednesday filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF; press release] in the US District Court for the District of Columbia against private security contractor Blackwater USA [corporate website; JURIST news archive] on behalf of an Iraqi man killed during a September 9 shooting in Baghdad. The lawsuit alleges that Blackwater guards fired indiscriminately into a crowd of civilians, killing five.

In October, CCR filed a different lawsuit [JURIST report] against Blackwater on behalf of an injured survivor and the families of 3 men killed during a September 16 shooting incident in Baghdad [JURIST report] that took the lives of 17 Iraqi civilians. That complaint [PDF text] alleged that Blackwater violated US law and should be liable for assault and battery, wrongful death, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligence. AP has more.