Missile fire downs chopper in Iraq; 11 die
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-22 07:36

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgents brought down a Russian-made helicopter carrying 11 civilians with missile fire north of the capital Thursday and said they captured and shot to death the lone crew member who survived. The dead from the crash included six American bodyguards for U.S. diplomats.

The chartered flight was believed to be the first civilian aircraft shot down in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion two years ago.

A video grab shows the wreckage of a Russian-built commercial helicopter in Baghdad, April 21, 2005. An Iraqi insurgent group said it shot down a commercial helicopter with 11 people on board and then killed the only survivor, according to a statement and video posted on the Internet. [Reuters]

"Heroes of the Islamic Army downed a transport aircraft belonging to the army of the infidels and killed its crew and those on board in the regions of al-Taji north of Baghdad," the Islamic Army in Iraq group said in a written statement posted on the Web with a video purporting to show the shooting of the survivor.

"One of the crew members was captured and killed," the statement said.

In the video, which shows burning wreckage and two charred bodies, militants come across an injured man wearing a blue flightsuit lying tall grass. "It's broken," the survivor says in accented English, apparently referring to his leg, as militants — unseen except in brief glances — tell him to stand up. "Weapons? Weapons?" the gunmen ask him in Arabic and English as he stands uneasily.

They tell him, "Go!", and he starts to hobble away, holding his hands up toward them. The gunmen then open fire, shouting "Allahu akbar," or "God is great," with the bullets hitting his body. They fire more shots into his body on the ground.

The authenticity of the video, posted on a Web forum often used by militant groups, could not be confirmed.

A video grab from footage released on the internet by an Iraqi insurgent group on April 21, 2005 a man in blue overalls lying in a grassy area at an undisclosed location in Iraq. An Iraqi insurgent group said it shot down a commercial helicopter with 11 people on board on Thursday and then killed the only survivor, according to a statement and video posted on the Internet. [Reuters]

The helicopter had three Bulgarian crewmembers, according to the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry. The six Americans were employed by Blackwater Security Consulting — a subsidiary of North Carolina-based security contractor Blackwater USA, which had four employees slain and mutilated by insurgents in Fallujah a year ago.

Elsewhere in Iraq, two U.S. Marines were killed Wednesday by a roadside bomb in Ramadi, west of the capital, the military said. The attack was followed by more explosions and gunfire Thursday in Ramadi and Baghdad that killed at least five people, including two foreign civilians.

The Americans killed in Thursday's crash were assisting the Bureau of Diplomatic Security in protecting U.S. diplomats in Iraq.

"They played a critical role in our effort to bring a better way of life to the people of a country who have not experienced freedom and opportunity for many years," State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said.

The helicopter went down about 12 miles north of Baghdad. Associated Press Television News footage showed burning wreckage from the craft and personal belongings scattered across a wide area.

The Islamic Army statement said it killed the survivor "in revenge for the Muslims who have been killed in cold blood in the mosques of tireless Fallujah before the eyes of the world and on television screens, without anyone condemning them." It was apparently referring to the shooting by an American soldier of a wounded Iraqi in a Fallujah mosque on Nov. 13 during a U.S. offensive in the city.

A U.S. Embassy official in Baghdad said he had no knowledge that anyone on board survived the crash and was killed later.

Ereli said he could not confirm the cause of the crash.

However, the Bulgarian Defense Ministry said the helicopter was struck by missile fire. A Canada-based charter company said the two additional passengers were Fijian helicopter security guards.

The aircraft was owned by Heli Air of Bulgaria and chartered by Toronto-based SkyLink Aviation Inc., according to SkyLink air operations manager Paul Greenaway. It was flying to Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit from Baghdad's heavily guarded Green Zone, home to Iraq's parliament and many diplomats.

Ereli said the U.S. government routinely hires contractors to provide security for diplomats, facilities or the activities of people connected with the government.

"There is a need for security that goes beyond what employees of the U.S. government can provide and we go to private companies to offer that," Ereli said. "That's a common practice. It's not unique to Iraq. We do it around the world."

Thursday's helicopter crash was thought to be the first shootdown of a civilian aircraft in Iraq since the invasion in March 2003.

On Nov. 22, 2003, a plane operated by the global package delivery service DHL was struck by a shoulder-fired missile near Baghdad and forced to make an emergency landing with its wing aflame. The three crew members were unhurt.

It was not the first time Blackwater workers have died in Iraq.

On March 13, two American security contractors working for Blackwater Security — a subsidiary of Blackwater USA — were killed and a third was wounded in a roadside bombing south of Baghdad on the main road to Hillah.

Last year, four Blackwater employees were killed in Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, and their bodies were burned and mutilated. Two of the corpses were strung up on a bridge over the Euphrates River. The deaths touched off a U.S. Marine assault on insurgents in the city.

This week has seen an increase in insurgent attacks, especially in the capital.

On Thursday, a roadside bomb exploded on the highway leading to Baghdad's airport, severely damaging three SUVs carrying civilians. Police Capt. Hamid Ali said two foreigners were killed and three were wounded. U.S. Embassy and military officials could not confirm the casualties.

In Ramadi, a roadside bomb wounded one soldier in a U.S. convoy. Another American soldier fired his machine gun at a suspected Iraqi ambush site, killing a female Iraqi civilian, U.S. officials said in a statement. Soldiers found an electronic device near the woman that may have been used to trigger the explosion, the statement said.

Hours later, gunfire erupted downtown, and an Associated Press photographer saw the body of a young boy in a street near three smoldering cars.

Sporadic gunfire continued for about two hours, said the photographer, Bilal Hussein. When it subsided, Iraqis pulled the charred body of an adult from one of the burned cars, Hussein said. It was not clear how the two were killed.

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