U.S. Eyes Chopper Crash Execution

Insurgents Post Video Of Crash, Killing; Blackwater IDs Dead

(CBS/AP)  The U.S.-led coalition sent an investigative team to the site of a copter gun-down Friday as a private firm identified six American employees killed in Thursday's crash.

A militant group claimed responsibility for what appears to be the first civilian aircraft hunted down in Iraq in two years of fighting. Violent video footage posted by the insurgent group shows burning wreckage of a Russian-made helicopter that carried 11 civilians, including six Americans.

The authenticity of the footage, posted on a Web forum often used by militant groups, could not be confirmed. In it, militants survey the downed chopper and come across an injured man wearing a blue flightsuit lying in tall grass.

"It's broken," he 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.

The gunmen tell him "Go!" and the survivor 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 U.S.-led coalition sent investigators Friday to the site.

The Bulgarian company that owned the downed Mi-8 chopper said the man shown on the video was one of the two pilots. Mihail Mihailov, the manager of Heli Air, identified the victim as Lyubomir Kostov.

Arab broadcaster Al Jazeera, meanwhile, aired video that it said was from a separate group calling itself the Mujahedeen Army in Iraq that showed the helicopter crashing to the ground and claiming it shot it down.

The claim of responsibility for the attack was made on the Internet earlier, by the Islamic Army of Iraq, a little-known insurgent group, reports CBS Newsman Phil Smucker. An Internet statement by the group was accompanied by a video showing the shooting of an injured Bulgarian crewmember in the tall grass beside the crash site.

Thursday's chartered flight was believed to be the first civilian aircraft shot down in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion two years ago. The dead included six American bodyguards for U.S. diplomats, three Bulgarian crew and two security guards from Fiji, officials said.

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

U.S. officials could not confirm the cause of the crash. However, the Bulgarian Defense Ministry said the helicopter was struck by missile fire.

"If the reports we have are accurate, that [the insurgents] took a shoulder-fired missile and knocked down this Russian-made helicopter, they are gaining sophistication," said CBS News Military Analyst Mitch Mitchell.

A private security firm Friday identified its seven guards who were killed on a single day this week in Iraq, including the six Blackwater Security Consulting guards responsible for protecting U.S. diplomats killed in the crash, said company spokesman Chris Bertelli.

A seventh Blackwater guard was killed near Ramadi when a bomb exploded next to one of the company's armored personnel carriers.

It was the bloodiest day of the Iraq conflict for the company, which is employed by the U.S. government for tasks ranging from the personal security for diplomats to protection for aid convoys.

William Hawkins said his stepson, Steve McGovern, had been a sergeant in the National Guard with the 20th Special Forces Group in Louisville before leaving in February to work for Blackwater. He had just started his second mission in Iraq.

"He was just doing what he loved to do," Hawkins said.

Moyock-based Blackwater identified those killed aboard the helicopter as Robert Jason Gore, 23, of Nevada, Iowa; Luke Adam Petrik, 24, of Conneaut, Ohio; Eric Smith, 31, of Waukesha, Wis.; David Patterson, 27, of Havelock; Obert, 29, of Fountain, Colo.; and McGovern, 24, of Lexington, Ky.

The bodies of the seven were being transported back to the United States aboard military aircraft, Bertelli said.

The authenticity of the footage, posted on a Web forum often used by militant groups, could not be confirmed, but "we have no reason to doubt that the video is authentic," said Mitchell. A U.S. Embassy official in Baghdad said he had no knowledge that anyone on board survived the crash and was killed later.

"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 group said in a written statement accompanying the video. "One of the crew members was captured and killed."