More arrests in helicopter downing in Iraq

updated 12:13 p.m. ET April 24, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. forces said Sunday they have arrested four more suspects in the shooting down of a civilian helicopter last week, bringing the number apprehended to 10. All 11 passengers and crew were killed, including one shot by insurgents.

U.S. soldiers from Task Force Baghdad, working with Iraqi security forces, detained the suspects in the past 24 hours, a military statement said. It provided no further details.

Iraqi civilians helped U.S. forces locate the first six suspects, who were captured early Saturday, the military said.

The Russian-made Mi-8 helicopter, on route from Baghdad to Tikrit, was shot down about 12 miles north of the capital on Thursday. The dead included six American bodyguards for U.S. diplomats, three Bulgarian crew members and two security guards from Fiji, officials said.

Claims of responsibility
Two militant groups claimed responsibility for the attack and released video to back their claims. In one video, insurgents are seen capturing and shooting to death the lone survivor, identified as a Bulgarian pilot.

The aircraft was owned by Heli Air of Bulgaria and chartered by Toronto-based SkyLink Aviation Inc.

The six Americans were employed by Blackwater Security Consulting -- a subsidiary of security contractor Blackwater USA of Moyock, North Carolina, which had four employees slain and mutilated by insurgents in Fallujah a year ago.

Iraqi Police and Task Force Baghdad Soldiers apprehended 16 other terror suspects in the Baghdad area during the last 24 hours, the statement said.

They include 11 captured in a U.S. raid in a village north of Baghdad early Sunday, believed to be members of a cell that planned and carried out bombing and mortar attacks.

The remains of the six Americans, three Bulgarians and two Fijians killed were transported to Balad Air Base, and an aircraft recovery team from the 3rd Infantry Division was to move the wreckage to Baghdad International Airport for further inspection, the military said.

Video shows pilot
The first video begins with an unseen cameraman breathing heavily and 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.

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 flight suit is lying on his back, the right side of his head bloody. The helicopter’s three-man crew was Bulgarian, and it appeared that the man shot in the video was one of the crew.

“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 help. “Give me your hand.”

It appears the militants help pull him to his feet.

“Weapons?” the gunmen shout at him in Arabic.

The cameraman tells the crewman, whose face is visible, to step back.

“Go! Go!” he shouts.

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