WASHINGTON — A war video circulating on the Internet that shows U.S. troops firing repeatedly on a group of men, some of whom were unarmed, walking down a Baghdad street is authentic, a senior U.S. military official confirmed Monday on condition of anonymity.
The official said the video posted at Wikileaks.org was of a July 12, 2007, firefight involving Army helicopters. The video, which contains a couple of obscenities, is also available to the right of this story. Titles and captions were added by wikileaks.
Among those believed to have been killed in that attack was Reuters photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and his driver Saeed Chmagh, 40. Two children also were wounded.
The official said the military could not confirm the identities of the Reuters employees in the film.
Navy Capt. Jake Hanzlik, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said U.S. forces in Iraq recognize many of the images in the video and have no reason to believe it is a fake. However, he said, they were still comparing the video and audio to see if it matched their own.
According to a July 19 summary of the investigation, U.S. troops acted appropriately, the military said. Reuters employees were likely “intermixed among the insurgents” and difficult to distinguish because of their equipment, the document states.
“At this time, we are working to verify the source of the video, its veracity, and when or where it was recorded,” a statement from U.S. military headquarters in Iraq said Monday.
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