| | KBR seeks to blame Army for death of its own drivers
 In a strange twist to a lawsuit filed against Halliburton and its subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root, the company has named the US Army and Iraqi insurgents responsible for the deaths and injuries to the firm's truck drivers in Iraq.
Families of the dead and injured drivers accused Halliburton and KBR of sending their relatives into combat zones in 2004 knowing they would be attacked and possibly killed.
Halliburton and KBR's lawyers say they won't force the Army to defend itself in court, but are employing a Texas law that lets juries consider whether other parties bear some responsibilities for victims' injuries.
“To the extent that any person or entity bears any legal liability as asserted by the plaintiffs, the United States caused or contributed to the injuries for which plaintiffs seek recovery and is a responsible third party,” the parties' lawyer Robert Meadows said in papers filed in court late Thursday.
The army’s own investigation into the convoy attacks “demonstrates that the conduct of the United States was a legal cause in fact of the injuries to the plaintiffs," Meadows added.
Earlier suits filed against Halliburton and KBR by the convoy drivers and their families were dismissed in 2006. The two firms successfully claimed that the case couldn't be litigated during wartime and was forbidden by the "US Defense Base Act."
But in May, an appellate court disagreed.
KBR was spun off from Texas-based Halliburton in 2007 after unfavorable coverage of the engineering and services unit; Halliburton has since moved their headquarters to Dubai.
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