Alex Constantine - April 5, 2010
By Mail Foreign Service
Daily Mail |April 2010
A horrific video showing the American soldiers shooting dead civilians in Iraq before laughing at their bodies has been leaked online. The footage - which emerged on website WikiLeaks - shows US forces firing repeatedly on a group of men, some of whom are unarmed. Among those believed killed in that attack was Reuters photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and his driver Saeed Chmagh, 40. Two children were also wounded during the incident in Baghdad.
Horrific: Part of the footage shows the Reuters journalists seconds before they were shot dead by US troops
Last night, a US military spokeman confirmed that the gritty footage was authentic.
WikiLeaks said it acquired encrypted video of the attack from military whistleblowers and had been able to view and investigate it after breaking the encryption code.
The website added that the video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-site, showed a firefight in the New Baghdad district of the city on July 12, 2007.
The video, with an audio track of talking between the flyers, shows an aerial view of a group of men moving about a square in a Baghdad neighbourhood. The flyers identify some of the men as armed and claim they are holding AK47s and an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade).
WikiLeaks said the men in the square include Reuters photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and his assistant and driver Saeed Chmagh, 40, who were killed in the incident.
Opening fire: The helicopter opens fire on the group, which included two Reuters staff, and laughed as they hit the men
'The gathering at the corner that is fired upon has about nine people in it,' Julian Assange, a WikiLeaks spokesman said.
The gunsight tracks the two Reuters news staff as the flyers identify their cameras as weapons.
The lead helicopter, using the moniker Crazyhorse, opens fire.
One of the crew shouts: 'Hahaha. I hit 'em'. Another responds a little later: 'Oh yeah, look at those dead b*****ds.'
Rescue: A van which has stopped to help the injured men comes under U.S. fire
'The gathering at the corner that is fired upon has about nine people in it,' Julian Assange, a WikiLeaks spokesman said.
The gunsight tracks the two Reuters news staff as the flyers identify their cameras as weapons.
The lead helicopter, using the moniker Crazyhorse, opens fire.
One of the crew shouts: 'Hahaha. I hit 'em'. Another responds a little later: 'Oh yeah, look at those dead b*****ds.'
One of the men on the ground, believed to be the driver Chmagh, is seen wounded and trying to crawl to safety. One of the helicopter crew is heard wishing for the man to reach for a gun so he has a reason for opening fire, and says: 'All you gotta do is pick up a weapon.'
Minutes later a van comes by, and starts assisting the wounded, and the helicopter opens fire. Sitting behind the windscreen are two children. After ground forces arrive and the children are discovered, the American air crew blame the Iraqis.
'Well it's their fault for bringing kids in to a battle,' says one. ...