Islamic "terrorists" in Iraq, shot down his company’s helicopter and later killed a captain, who was the sole survivor of the 11 people on board.
CEO Mihail Mihaylov of Sofia-based Heli Air told BosNewsLife his company will no longer fly in Iraq after militants, who also tried to scare away Iraq’s minority Christians, used "a Russian surface-to-air-missile" to bring down the Russian made Mi-8 helicopter Thursday, April 21.
The Bulgarian Ministry of Defense also claimed the helicopter was attacked, but the United States Defense Department said the cause of the crash was still under investigation.
EXPLOSION
News of the crash came as in Baghdad a car bomb blew up outside a mosque of the Shi’ite minority, another religious group disliked by insurgents, as prayers were ending late Friday, April 22, killing 11 people and wounding 17, Reuters news agency reported.
In addition Churches of the estimated 750,000 Christians still left in Iraq are attacked and several believers have been kidnapped, in an apparent effort by insurgents to increase religious tensions as the country tries to establish a fragile democracy, human rights watchers have said. Muslim militants have accused Iraqi Christians of working with the United States-led coalition.
Speaking by telephone, Mihaylov said six American civilians as well as two Fiji body guards and three Bulgarian crewmen on board the crashed helicopter were killed Thursday, April 21, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
AMERICANS
"Eleven people were killed. Six passengers, two security guys and three Bulgarian guys were (also) killed in the helicopter," he told BosNewsLife News Center in Budapest. The six killed Americans were reportedly employed by Blackwater Security Consulting, a subsidiary of security contractor Blackwater USA. That company had four employees slain and mutilated by insurgents in Fallujah a year ago.
Mihaylov said he was shocked to see a video on the Internet Friday, April 22, in which the sole Bulgarian survivor of Thursday’s crash, 42-year old helicopter Captain Lyobomir Kostov, was later gunned down by militants.
The video begins with an unseen cameraman breathing heavily and running with the camera toward burning wreckage. Several bodies are visible with nearly all clothes burned away. Later in the footage, Kostov can be viewed lying on his back, the right side of his head bloody. Initially it appeared the militants wanted to help the surviving pilot to his feet.
"ALLAHU AKBAR"
But as he tries to walk, limping with his back, Kostov is seen raising his hands to somebody off camera, apparently to stop what they are about to do. The militants open fire and continue to shoot him after he falls to the ground while someone cries "Allahu Akbar" which means "God is Great."
The clearly emotional CEO Mihaylov said he was unable to sit through the whole video, because he knew Kostov personally. "This is a tragedy. He was alive and they killed him. He was a captain of the helicopter. He was around the helicopter, alive, but with a broken leg. They [the militants] helped him, but than killed him," he said apparently fighting back tears.
In their Web statement, the group Islamic Army in Iraq claimed responsibility for the crash and said it killed the surviving crewman "in revenge for the Muslims killed in the mosques of Fallujah." Analysts believe it refers to the fatal shooting of a wounded Iraqi by an American soldier in an Al-Fallujah mosque on November 13 during a US offensive in the city.
INVESTIGATION
Mihaylov said he would arrive in Iraq Saturday, April 23, to join officials of the helicopter contractors, Toronto-based SkyLink Aviation and US-registered Logistic Support, who are already investigating the crash. He added they will also organize the return of human remains as well as employees and associates of Heli Air to Bulgaria. "This is our priority, we will no longer stay in Iraq."
It is believed to be the first time a civilian aircraft was shot down in Iraq, since the American-led invasion began two years ago. The apparent attack comes as Bulgaria, one of several Eastern European countries involved in US-led operations, considers to withdraw an infantry battalion of about 460 troops from Iraq by the end of the year.
Bulgaria’s government has come under increasing public pressure, after eight soldiers were killed earlier in several attacks, including one in what was called "a friendly fire incident," in March. (With reports from Baghdad, Washington, Sofia and BosNewsLife Research)
