Two truckers who drove in Iraq told a committee of U.S. Senate Democrats on Monday that the company they worked for knowingly sent a lightly armed convoy of tankers into a combat zone, resulting in the deaths of seven drivers and two soldiers.

The New York Times reports that the truckers were driving for Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root when they were attacked by small arms, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades near the Bagdad airport in April 2004.

Some of the families of the dead are now suing KBR.

In a statement, company officials denied the truckers’ allegations, and said the U.S. military – not KBR – was responsible for convoy security.