Video shows US soldier dying

2005-04-22 10:36

Egypt - In an internet video, a man purported to be the sole survivor of a helicopter shot down in Iraq on Thursday was helped to his feet by gunmen who found him lying in the grass, and moments later they killed him in a spray of bullets, shouting "Allahu akbar," or "God is great."

The video was posted on a web forum used by Islamic militants and came with a written statement from the Islamic Army in Iraq claiming responsibility for the downing of the civilian helicopter carrying security contractors in which 11 people - Americans, Bulgarians and Fijians - were killed.

There was no independent confirmation of the video's authenticity. It showed very little editing and bore the clumsy handiwork of an amateur cameraman. Wreckage visible in the video resembles that seen in aftermath footage filmed by various news outlets at the crash site north of Baghdad.

The video begins with an unseen cameraman running with the camera toward burning wreckage. Two bodies are visible, one of them severely charred, nearly all its clothes burned away.

"Look at that filth," someone says in Arabic at the sight of the body. There are brief glimpses of a man carrying an assault rifle along with the cameraman.

The scene moves to tall grass, where a man with thinning gray hair and wearing a blue flightsuit is lying on his back, the right side of his head bloody.

"Stand up! Stand up!" the cameraman shouts to him in English.

"I can't, it's broken. Give me a hand," the survivor says in accented English, raising his hands for held "Give me your hand," he repeats.

It appears the militants help pull him to his feet. "Weapons?" the gunmen shout at him in English and Arabic.

The cameraman tells the crewman, whose face is visible, to step back, shouting "Go! Go!"

The survivor then tries to walk, limping with his back to the insurgents, who then say something to him that makes him turn around. He raises his hands to somebody off camera as if gesturing to them to stop what they are about to do.

The militants open fire, shooting him at point blank range and he falls to the ground. The gunmen shoot more bullets into his body as someone shouts "Allahu Akbar."

The Bulgarian-owned helicopter was carrying six American security contractors who worked as bodyguards for United States diplomats. Its three crewmembers were Bulgarian, and two other passengers were Fijian helicopter security guards.

In their web statement, the Islamic Army in Iraq said it killed the surviving crewman "in revenge for the Muslims killed in the mosques of Fallujah."

The statement was apparently referring to an American soldier's shooting a wounded Iraqi in a Fallujah mosque on November 13 during a US offensive in the city.

- AP