Two defense contractors indicted in shooting of Afghans

Federal officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the case is pending, said that no Paravant car was struck by another vehicle and that the Afghans who were shot were in a car that had passed the contractors from the other direction.

But Callahan said the lead Paravant car was deliberately struck by another car traveling in the same direction. The first car flipped over. Callahan said Cannon and Drotleff, who were traveling in the second car, got out and were running to check on their injured colleagues when the car that had caused the accident accelerated toward them. The men opened fire, Callahan said, killing one Afghan in the car and a bystander about 900 feet away.

In a separate case Thursday, a federal judge in Alexandria dismissed a civil lawsuit filed against the former Blackwater over the deaths of Iraqi civilians, a decision hailed by Xe for allowing it to move "forward free of the costs and distractions of ongoing litigation.''

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III dismissed the lawsuit against Xe after attorneys for about 70 Iraqis who had sued the company affirmed that every plaintiff had signed on to a financial settlement that the plaintiffs had originally reached with the company in November.

The undisclosed settlement almost collapsed when plaintiffs' attorneys tried to withdraw it, saying that several Iraqi plaintiffs had not approved the agreement. They blamed a translation error.

Staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.