The Talk Show American

THE TALK SHOW AMERICAN: Video Purports to Show Dragging of Pilot

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Video Purports to Show Dragging of Pilot

An extremist group posted an Internet video Wednesday that it said showed a U.S. pilot being dragged along the ground, burning, after the crash of his Apache helicopter. The video, posted by a group that called itself the Shura Council of Mujahedeen, claimed that its military wing had shot down the craft, which the U.S. military said went down Saturday.

The footage in the video, which was e-mailed to reporters and posted on the Internet, was blurry but the helicopter could be clearly seen. It was not clear if the man being dragged in the video was wearing a U.S. military uniform.

But the extremist group, in audio and a statement attached to the video, said he was a U.S. helicopter pilot.

Separately, the U.S. military in Baghdad announced Wednesday that it had confirmed the two pilots in the downed helicopter had died, and said it had recovered "all available remains found on the scene, given the catastrophic nature of the crash."

The military statement said that although "reports of a web site video suggest that terrorists removed part of a body from the crash site, the authenticity of the video cannot be confirmed."

"We are outraged that anyone would create and publish such a despicable video for public exposure," said Lt. Col. Jonathan Withington, a spokesman for the U.S. miltary.

The AH-64D Apache Longbow crashed due to possible hostile fire west of Yousifiyah while conducting a combat air patrol, the military said.

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