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Reuters via Reuters TV

A video grab shows the wreckage of a Russian-built commercial helicopter in Baghdad today.

Helicopter Crash in Iraq Kills 11, Including 6 Americans
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.
and ROBERT F. WORTH

BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 21 - Eleven people, including six Americans from the security firm Blackwater USA working under contract to the United States military, were killed when a commercial helicopter ferrying the security guards from Baghdad to Tikrit crashed 12 miles northwest of the capital, according to officials from Blackwater and from the company that chartered the aircraft.

The crash of the Mi-8 helicopter also killed the three-man Bulgarian crew and two Fijian guards, said Paul Greenaway, an air operations manager in Iraq for the company that chartered the aircraft, Skylink Air and Logistic Support, which used the helicopter to ferry clients and also has contracts to help manage airports in Baghdad and Basra. While several military helicopters have been downed by insurgent fire, it is apparently the first time a commercial helicopter has crashed in post-war Iraq from hostile actions.

Robert Callahan, an official at the United States Embassy in Baghdad, said: "We believe it was brought down by hostile fire. We don't know the nature of the fire." Television reports showed a demolished and charred helicopter in a remote area. Officials from the Bulgarian Defense Ministry also released a statement describing the crash as caused by a missile strike.

In an interview, Mr. Greenaway said it was too soon to pinpoint the cause of the crash. "It has been widely reported it was shot down, but we'll have to wait for the inquiry," Mr. Greenaway said. "It's an open question at the moment." Skylink officials said the helicopter was owned and operated by Heli-Air Services of Bulgaria.

Mr. Greenaway said Skylink had used the helicopter to fly personnel and equipment for their clients, and he said Skylink had little detail on the reasons the passengers were taking the flight. "Very simply, it was a charter flight, and the client had asked us to move their personnel," he said.

A statement issued by Blackwater USA described Skylink as operating under contract to Blackwater "in support of a Department of Defense contract." The statement added, "The specifics of the crash are not yet known and there does not appear to be any survivors." The names of the victims are not being released pending notification of the next of kin.

It is the second tragedy in the past year for Blackwater, a firm based in North Carolina: Four members of its security team were killed by a mob in Falluja and their bodies hoisted on a bridge across the Euphrates River in a grisly display one year ago that preceded an abortive military assault on the Sunni city.

Blackwater said another employee was killed in Iraq today when a homemade bomb exploded next to one of the company's armored vehicles near the restive city of Ramadi. Four other employees were injured in the attack; all were under a contract to the Department of Defense, according to Blackwater.

"This is a very sad day for the Blackwater family," Gary Jackson, president of Blackwater USA, said in a statement. "We lost a number of our friends to attacks by terrorists in Iraq and our thoughts and prayers go out to their family members."

In other developments, there were more conflicting reports about the nature of crimes that killed more than 70 Iraqis recently.

The Ministry of Defense said that the 19 Iraqis who were kidnapped, taken to a soccer stadium in Haditha, and lined up against the wall and shot were actually Shiite fisherman, and not Iraqi troops, as described on Wednesday by an Interior Ministry official. A defense official described the victims as fishermen from Najaf and Diwaniyah who had traveled to the massive Tharthar Lake in the Sunni-dominated Anbar Province northwest of Baghdad and east of Haditha.

And in Suwayrah, southeast of Baghdad, authorities said they continued to find bodies in the Tigris River, but that some were recovered as long as three weeks ago.

The new Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani, asserted on Wednesday that more than 50 Shiites were, in fact, killed in the town of Madaen during a mass kidnapping several days ago, and that their bodies were thrown into the Tigris River. His statement contradicted other Iraqi officials and Army commanders who swept into the town last weekend and said there was no evidence of kidnappings or killings.

In Suwayrah, 20 miles down river from Madaen, Dr. Falah al-Permani, a local health official, told The Associated Press that as many as 50 bodies have been recovered in the past three weeks but it was unclear whether they were the bodies mentioned by Mr. Talabani. The doctor also said that as temperatures have warmed, bodies have been floating to the surface.

In Baghdad, an official at the Interior Ministry said the police in Suwayrah reported that several bodies have been recovered each day since April 6. Some were old, and some were mutilated, the police reported.

Officials at the United States Embassy in Baghdad said they did not know what happened to the bodies or whether there was a mass kidnapping and killing in Madaen. "We are talking to as many people as we can to find out what the truth is," said Mr. Callahan, the embassy official.

In a televised address today, Mr. Talabani said any amnesty offered to insurgents by the new government would not apply to those with "the blood of Iraqis on their hands." He made his comments in a speech marking the birthday of the prophet Muhammad, a state holiday when political leaders have sometimes announced amnesties in the past.

Mr. Talabani, like some other Iraqi political figures, has spoken in recent weeks of extending an amnesty to resistance members, but has not specified any terms or conditions. In his speech today, he called for "opening the door for honest Iraqis who were fooled by the lies of our enemy, and who think with fighting they can force the coalition forces to leave Iraq."

As president, Mr. Talabani's authority is mostly ceremonial, and any amnesty order would have to be approved by the national assembly.



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