Washington ( CNN ) -- Two men who worked as security contractors for the company formerly known as Blackwater have been charged with murder in the killings of two Afghan men , federal prosecutors announced Thursday . Christopher Drotleff and Justin Cannon are charged with two counts of second-degree murder and one count of attempted murder each in connection with the May shootings in Kabul . The 12-count , 19-page indictment returned by a federal grand jury in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia also includes weapons charges against the two men . The indictment was returned Wednesday but unsealed Thursday . Both men were in Afghanistan working for the security company Paravant , a subsidiary of Xe , the military contracting firm formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide . FBI agents have arrested both men , the Justice Department announced . Drotleff , Cannon and two other contractors , Steven McClain and Armando Hamid , were involved in the May 5 , 2009 , shooting that left two Afghan civilians dead and another wounded . The men had been hired by Paravant to help the U.S. Army train Afghan troops . The contractors said they were driving their interpreters on a busy Kabul street called Jalalabad Road at around 9 p.m. when a car slammed into one of their two cars . `` I immediately thought we were under attack , '' McClain said in May . The contractors got out to help their colleagues , and the vehicle that had struck the car did a U-turn and headed back at them , the men said . The contractors fired at the oncoming vehicle . `` The car was coming at us , '' Cannon said in May . `` At that point we attempted to stop and immobilize the vehicle and we engaged it in small arms fire . And the car did n't stop , it just kept going . '' The incident spotlights the issue of the role and conduct of U.S. security contractors in Afghanistan . A similar issue arose in Iraq after a September 2007 confrontation involving then-Blackwater contractors that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead . Blackwater lost its contract there after Iraq 's government refused to renew its operating license . The company then changed its name to Xe , and it continues to receive multimillion-dollar contracts in Afghanistan . In the wake of the shooting , all four men lost their jobs with Paravant for violating the company 's alcohol policy . The contractors said they had not been drinking and had not had a drink since their arrival in November . `` We feel that Blackwater wanted to shift the blame from Blackwater itself to these men as if they were acting on a lark , '' attorney Daniel J. Callahan said in May . `` Off duty , with weapons , weapons of their own , and while drinking . And I think the intent is to use these men as scapegoats . '' Callahan , who has advised the men but has not been formally retained by any of them , did not immediately return a call Thursday seeking comment on the charges . In a written statement Thursday , Xe said it had `` immediately and fully cooperated with the government 's investigation of this tragic incident and terminated the individuals involved for violating company policy . '' Also Thursday , Xe announced it has settled seven lawsuits that accused it of crimes in cases not related to the Afghanistan shooting . The lawsuits accused Blackwater security guards of widespread illegal activity , including fostering `` a culture of lawlessness '' among its guards . A lawyer representing the plaintiffs , Susan Burke , said neither she nor anyone else involved in the settlement was allowed to discuss it publicly . It was not clear how much the settlement was for . One lawsuit , filed by Burke in 2007 on behalf of families of several Iraqis killed or wounded in the September 2007 shooting in Baghdad , Iraq , said that a quarter of Blackwater security guards in Iraq use steroids and other `` judgment-altering substances . '' The lawsuit also accused the company of war crimes , wrongful death , assault , negligent hiring and emotional distress . The plaintiffs included two wounded survivors of the Baghdad shooting and the families of five people killed in the incident . Blackwater denied the accusations . Last week , a federal judge dismissed manslaughter charges against five Blackwater security guards involved in the killings , finding that prosecutors wrongly used the men 's own statements against them .
Christopher Cannon , Justin Cannon charged with murder , attempted murder . They relate to two shooting deaths in Kabul , Afghanistan , in May . Drotleff , Cannon were security guards for company formerly known as Blackwater . May 1 incident began with auto collision ; men say vehicle then aimed for them .