WASHINGTON -- U.S. prosecutors announced manslaughter and weapons charges against five former Blackwater Worldwide guards, accusing the men of recklessly opening fire with automatic weapons and grenade launchers in a busy Baghdad traffic circle last year.

The Blackwater guards were part of an armored convoy providing backup to a State Department security team. Seventeen people died in the Sept. 16, 2007, shooting, which strained relations between the U.S. and Iraq.

In...