![Ethnic minority women walk with their children near a kindergarten with a banner that reads 'I'm a China doll, can speak Mandarin' at the apartment houses compound built by the Chinese government in Yuexi county, southwest China's Sichuan province on Sept 11, 2020 [Andy Wong/AP Photo]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/AP_20266028869727.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
![Nicholas Slatten - second left - was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of first-degree murder [AP]](/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/e953216383054745acbe879c77f08183_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
One former US security guard given life sentence and three others receive 30-year terms for 2007 deadly Iraq shooting.
From: Inside Story
Military contractors: Mercenary or necessary?
The jailing of four former Blackwater guards reignites the debate over the outsourcing of war.
16 Apr 2015
Related
![Members of a private security company pose on the rooftop of a house in Baghdad, September 2007 [Getty]](/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/ad698ff5a0f64259bee216c3ab621bca_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
Memoir by Blackwater founder serves as a blueprint for how to make a killing off killing.
![Ethnic minority women walk with their children near a kindergarten with a banner that reads 'I'm a China doll, can speak Mandarin' at the apartment houses compound built by the Chinese government in Yuexi county, southwest China's Sichuan province on Sept 11, 2020 [Andy Wong/AP Photo]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/AP_20266028869727.jpg?resize=170%2C113)
![Iran insists that the United States lift all unilateral sanctions before it engages in talks over the nuclear deal [AFP]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/000_1M264W.jpg?resize=170%2C113)
![Former US President Donald Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, on February 28 [Octavio Jones/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/2021-02-28T225202Z_1499754821_HP1EH2S1RIQ4Q_RTRMADP_3_USA-TRUMP.jpg?resize=170%2C113)
![Syria says the rockets were fired from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights [File: Jalaa Marey/AFP]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/335d1ec337ac44bfad389502f2bca98e_18.jpeg?resize=170%2C113)
![Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi receiving a dose of COVID-19 vaccine in New Delhi [Handout via EPA]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/h_56730980.jpg?resize=170%2C113)