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12.07.

2007: Secret Recording of Baghdad Airstrike

2007: Secret Recording of Baghdad Airstrike
Photo Credit To Wikipedia Commons/"Cameramen and armed insurgents" (all captions from the Army report)

Story Highlights

  • Historical event
  • 12 July 2007
  • Secret recording of American helicopter attack in Baghdad leaked to the Internet and caused a sensation, because it shows how American troops kill mostly unarmed Iraqis with a helicopter mounted chain gun. Even two Iraqi children were targeted by American weapons.

On this day the famous recording of a helicopter attack on Baghdad, filmed form the very helicopter, were made.



This video footage was, of course, supposed to be secret, but it somehow leaked to the internet and caused a sensation.

The recording shows how two American AH-64 Apache helicopters attacked a group of Iraqis on the street with a 30 mm M230 chain gun.

This powerful gun fires ammunition at a rate of 625 rounds per minute, going 2900 km/h. Most people attacked by the Americans were unarmed.

Two of them were even Reuters reporters: Saeed Chmagh and Namir Noor-Eldeen, whose cameras were mistakenly identified as weapons.




The helicopters also destroyed a van with two children inside.

Finally, the Americans fired three Hellfire missiles from the helicopter, which destroyed the building in which some Iraqis previously entered.

Hellfire missile is one of the most famous American air-to-surface missile. It weighs between 45 and 49 kg and has a top speed of Mach 1.3.

The name Hellfire actually stands for HELicopter Launched FIRE-and-forget. It total, 12 to 18 Iraqis were killed in these attacks, including the two mentioned Reuters reporters.

The two children in the destroyed van were injured.

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