Confusion Over Baghdad Copter Crash

(CBS/AP)  Four of the five Americans killed when a U.S. security company's helicopter crashed in a dangerous Sunni neighborhood in central Baghdad were shot execution style in the back the head, an Iraqi military official said Wednesday.

The official — who, like all others contacted, spoke on condition of anonymity because details had not been made public — said the four were shot while on the ground. He gave no other details.

A U.S. official in Baghdad, however, had earlier said there was no information to substantiate the report that the bodies had been shot execution style.

The senior Iraqi military official said the helicopter had been shot down, but this was disputed by a U.S. military official in Washington. The Iraqi said the helicopter was hit by a machine gunner over the Fadhil neighborhood on the east side of the Tigris River, while the U.S. official said there was no indication in initial reports that the aircraft, owned by Blackwater USA, had been shot down. The Americans said they did not know what caused the aircraft to crash.

Blackwater USA confirmed that five Americans employed by the North Carolina-based company as security professionals were killed. The statement from spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell did not provide identities or any details of the fighting.

On Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad offered condolences for the five Americans killed, calling them good men and saying he had traveled with them.

"We had a very bad day yesterday," Khalilzad told reporters during a roundtable discussion at the embassy in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad. "We lost five fine men."

He said he had traveled with the men who were killed and had gone to the morgue to view the bodies, although he didn't say where that was.

Khalilzad did not give more details, saying the crash was still under investigation and it was difficult to know exactly what happened because of "the fog of war."

Another American official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said three Blackwater helicopters were involved. One had landed for an unknown reason and one of the Blackwater employees was shot at that point, he said. That helicopter apparently was able to take off but a second one then crashed in the same area, he added without explaining the involvement of the third helicopter.

The Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television reported that the 1920 Revolution Brigades insurgent group claimed responsibility for shooting down the helicopter and showed a video taken by a cell phone of a mass of still-smoldering twisted metal that it was said was the wreckage of the chopper.

Another Sunni insurgent group, the Ansar al-Sunnah Army, also claimed responsibility for the same attack and posted identity cards of men who were on the helicopter on a Web site, including at least two that bore the name of Arthur Laguna, who was later identified by his mother as among those killed.

The New York Times reported the helicopter went down as it came under attack and plummeted to the pavement through a tangle of electrical wires, but it was unclear if the crash resulted from gunfire, the wires or an effort to land.

Quoting unnamed American officials, the newspaper said the helicopter's four-man crew was killed along with a gunner on a second Blackwater helicopter.

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[valendug]

Those "contractors", or hired killers work for Halliburton, so the US government isn't blamed for hiring private executioners.

[tuckerndfw]

These "security professionals" are more correctly and commonly known as "mercenaries" or "hired killers."

They deserve no sympathy or support, they are murderers for hire.

[fleshmonger6]

It is a sad event when anyone loses their lives and I feel for the families of these individuals but there should not be a private army doing anything in the name of the U.S. anywhere in the world. It is the sole job of personel in the uniforms of the U.S. military to be doing for America any duty that involves carrying a weapon and this kind of activity can be nothing but bad for any freedom loving individual as it will one day prove itself to be. Mercenaries, and that is what these groups are, are not beholden to any single ideology except money or government as proven by the fact they take no solemn oath and it is this fact alone that should make them unsuitable for employment. If the U.S. has a job that our leadership thinks is too dangerous or too sensitive or too much a secret for the uniformed military to do, it is a job that should not get done. Hiring these groups makes it too easy to circumvent international law or the oversight of the American people. Niether of which, good government should want to do...

[bluestardad]

It is common knowledge that Iraqi units are infiltrated by all types of Insurgents, Terrorist, and Execution Death Squads members of Both Religions. Those people who support this Surge of Troops in Iraq are forcing American Soldiers to sleep with the enemy in small units exposing them to undue kidnap threat. Americans soldiers who are captured by these enemies are without mercy, tortured and mutilated beyond recognition by their captors. Still our political leadership are planning to send these Brave Men and Women in to this environment. If American proceeds with this deployment and breaks down small American Units to live and work with these Iraqi Death Squad Units our troops will be kidnapped and handed over to such beheadings, torture and captivity as has never been seen before on Cable, Internet, and National Television. If you support this surge in troops and the tactics it brings you are responsible for every one of these deaths.