Background stories:
- (New York Times, July 2007)
- (Washington Post, Sept 2009)
Calling it a case of "collateral murder," the WikiLeaks Web site today released harrowing until-now secret video of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter in Baghdad in 2007 repeatedly opening fire on a group of men that included a Reuters photographer and his driver -- and then on a van that stopped to rescue one of the wounded men.
None of the members of the group were taking hostile action, contrary to the Pentagon's initial cover story; they were milling about on a street corner. One man was evidently carrying a gun, though that was and is hardly an uncommon occurrence in Baghdad.
Reporters working for WikiLeaks determined that the driver of the van was a good Samaritan on his way to take his small children to a tutoring session. He was killed and his two children were badly injured.
In the video, which Reuters has been asking to see since 2007, crew members can be heard celebrating their kills.
"Oh yeah, look at those dead bastards," says one crewman after multiple rounds of 30mm cannon fire left nearly a dozen bodies littering the street.
A crewman begs for permission to open fire on the van and its occupants, even though it has done nothing but stop to help the wounded: "Come on, let us shoot!"
Two crewmen share a laugh when a Bradley fighting vehicle runs over one of the corpses.
And after soldiers on the ground find two small children shot and bleeding in the van, one crewman can be heard saying: "Well, it's their fault bringing their kids to a battle."
The helicopter crew, which was patrolling an area that had been the scene of fierce fighting that morning, said they spotted weapons on members of the first group -- although the video shows one gun, at most. The crew also mistook a telephoto lens for a rocket-propelled grenade.
The shooting, which killed Reuters photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and driver Saeed Chmagh, 40, took place on July 12, 2007, in a southeastern neighborhood of Baghdad.
WARNING: The following video is not censored, and depicts graphic acts of violence, bloodshed, and inhumanity.
Update:
Families of Victims of 2007 US Helicopter Killing React to Leaked Video
Gates on Wikileaks Video
(source)
Related News: (source)
US Forces Admit Killing Two Pregnant Afghan Women & Teenager
In Afghanistan, US-led forces have admitted to killing two pregnant Afghan women and a teenage girl during a nighttime raid on February 12. Afghan investigators told the Times of London US Special Forces soldiers tried to cover up the killings. US forces reportedly dug bullets out of their victims’ bodies, then washed the wounds with alcohol before lying to their superiors about what happened. One of the women killed was a pregnant mother of ten, and another was a pregnant mother of six. Initially NATO military officials suggested that the women were stabbed to death, or had died by some other means, hours before the raid. In other news from Afghanistan, German troops accidentally killed six Afghan soldiers on Saturday.
Karzai Lashes Out at Western Nations
The killings occur as tension mounts between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Western leaders. Last week Karzai issued a harsh rebuke of Western and United Nations involvement in Afghanistan, criticizing what he called “massive interference from foreigners." On Saturday, he reportedly told a group of lawmakers, “If you and the international community pressure me more, I swear that I am going to join the Taliban.”
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