U.S. Eyes Chopper Crash Execution

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."

Mitchell says the insurgents have different rules of engagement than U.S. forces.

"We treat people humanely, but they don't," said Mitchell, a retired army colonel. "So they have gone out and taken an injured pilot or crewmember and killed him in cold blood. That's just wrong by anybody's standards."

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

The Islamic Army statement said it killed the survivor "in revenge for the Muslims who have been killed in cold blood in the mosques of tireless Fallujah before the eyes of the world and on television screens, without anyone condemning them." It was apparently referring to the shooting by an American soldier of a wounded Iraqi in a Fallujah mosque on Nov. 13 during a U.S. offensive in the city.

The Americans were helping the Bureau of Diplomatic Security protect U.S. diplomats in Iraq.

"They played a critical role in our effort to bring a better way of life to the people of a country who have not experienced freedom and opportunity for many years," State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said.

The aircraft was owned by Heli Air of Bulgaria and chartered by Toronto-based SkyLink Aviation Inc., according to SkyLink air operations manager Paul Greenaway.

It was flying to Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit from Baghdad's heavily guarded Green Zone, home to Iraq's parliament and many diplomats.

Blackwater said another one of its guards was killed and four injured Thursday when an explosive device was detonated next to one of its armored personnel carrier near Ramadi. No further details were released.