Iraq crash survivor shot on video
By MAGGIE MICHAEL
CAIRO, Egypt – In a video showing the killing of the purported sole survivor of a downed helicopter in Iraq, a gunman orders, “Carry out God’s verdict,” and his colleagues open fire, riddling the man with bullets as they shout “Allahu akbar!” or “God is great!”
The video was posted on an Internet forum used by Islamic militants and was accompanied by a written statement from a group identifying itself as the Islamic Army in Iraq. The statement claimed responsibility for Thursday’s downing of the civilian helicopter carrying security contractors in which 11 people six Americans, three Bulgarians and two Fijians were killed.
The chartered flight was believed to be the first civilian aircraft shot down in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion two years ago.
The man shown being shot to death in the video was the Bulgarian pilot, the company that owned the Mi-8 aircraft said Friday. The slain pilot was identified as Lyubomir Kostov, said Mihail Mihailov, manager of the Heli Air company.
“The man shot on the video is definitely Lyubomir Kostov, the pilot of the chopper,” said Mihailov after seeing the video on the Internet.
Kostov was the company’s main pilot, Mihailov said.
The video showed very little editing and bore the clumsy handiwork of an amateur cameraman. The authenticity of the crash footage could not be verified, but the wreckage visible in the video resembled that seen in aftermath footage filmed by various news outlets at the crash site north of Baghdad.
The 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 later identified as Kostov is lying on his back, the right side of his head bloody. The helicopter’s three-man crew was Bulgarian.
“Stand up! Stand up!” the cameraman shouts to Kostov in English.
“I can’t, it’s broken. Give me a hand,” he says in accented English, raising his hands for help. “Give me your hand.”
It appears the militants help pull Kostov to his feet.
“Weapons?” the gunmen shout at him in Arabic.
The cameraman tells Kostov, whose face is visible, to step back.
“Go! Go!” he shouts.
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