"Our efforts today are designed to support your complaint, and if there are no complaints, Iraq's government will bring the case on your behalf", government Spokesman Ali Al Dabbagh told the victims' families on Monday before a US court.

Fadel Mohammed Jawad, a legal adviser to Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki, said Iraq would seek compensation for the families following the US judge's decision to drop the charges on December 31, 2009.

An Iraqi investigation has found that 17 civilians were killed and 20 others injured in September 2007, when five Blackwater guards using guns and grenades in Baghdad's central Nisour Square targeted civilians in an "unprovoked attack."