July 12, 2007, Baghdad airstrike

"Collateral murder" redirects here. For the general concept, see Collateral damage.

July 12, 2007, Baghdad airstrike
Part of the Iraq War
An AH-64 Apache helicopter, the type used in the attack
TypeAirstrike
Location
New Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq
DateJuly 12, 2007
Executed byUnited States Army
Casualties12-18+[1][2][3][4][5] killed
2 children injured

On July 12, 2007, a series of air-to-ground attacks were conducted by a team of two U.S. AH-64 Apache helicopters in Al-Amin al-Thaniyah, New Baghdad, during the Iraqi insurgency which followed the invasion of Iraq. On April 5, 2010, the attacks received worldwide coverage and controversy following the release of 39 minutes of classified gunsight footage by WikiLeaks.[6] The video, which WikiLeaks titled Collateral Murder,[7][8] showed the crew firing on a group of people and killing several of them, including two Reuters journalists, and then laughing at some of the casualties, all of whom were civilians.[15] An anonymous U.S. military official confirmed the authenticity of the footage,[16] which provoked global discussion on the legality and morality of the attacks.

In the first strike, the crews of two Apaches directed 30 mm cannon fire at a group of ten Iraqi men.[17][18][19] Among the group were two Iraqi war correspondents working for Reuters, Saeed Chmagh and Namir Noor-Eldeen. Seven men (including Noor-Eldeen) were killed during this first strike; Chmagh, who was injured, died in the second strike.

The second strike, also using 30 mm rounds, was directed at a van whose driver, Saleh Matasher Tomal, drove by and helped the wounded Chmagh. Both Chmagh and Tomal were killed in the second strike, and two of Tomal's children were badly wounded.

In a third strike, Apache pilots watched people, including some armed men, run into a building and attacked the building with several AGM-114 Hellfire missiles.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference nytimes20100726 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference NYT20100505_Bumiller was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference NewYorker-Nosecrets was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Keller, Bill (January 26, 2011). "Dealing With Assange and the WikiLeaks Secrets" (adapted from introduction to the book Open Secrets). New York Times. Archived from the original on September 8, 2012. Retrieved June 18, 2012.
  5. ^ "Iraq war files: Apache Hellfire victims". Channel 4. October 22, 2010. Archived from the original on February 12, 2011. Retrieved April 27, 2011.
  6. ^ Leaked U.S. video shows deaths of Reuters' Iraqi staffers Archived November 20, 2015, at the Wayback Machine. Reuters.
  7. ^ Gilson, Dave. "What the WikiLeaks Media Blitz Has Revealed About WikiLeaks". Mother Jones. Retrieved October 23, 2023.
  8. ^ "Collateral Murder, 5 Apr 2010". WikiLeaks.
  9. ^ Thakur, Ramesh (2016). "International Criminal Justice". The United Nations, Peace and Security (2nd ed.). Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 109–133. ISBN 9781107176942. Retrieved December 23, 2020.
  10. ^ "Bradley Manning Convicted for Classified U.S. Document Leaks". Historic Documents of 2013. Los Angeles/London: SAGE Publishing. 2014. p. 365. ISBN 9781483347868. Retrieved December 23, 2020.
  11. ^ "US military video showing 2007 Apache attack on Iraqi civilians released". The Telegraph. London: Telegraph Media Group. April 5, 2010. Archived from the original on April 24, 2017. Retrieved December 23, 2020.
  12. ^ Bamat, Joseph (April 6, 2010). "Leaked video shows US military killing of civilians, Reuters staff". France 24. Paris: France Médias Monde. Archived from the original on April 2, 2016. Retrieved December 23, 2020.
  13. ^ Morris, Alex (August 30, 2012). "Permission to Engage: WikiLeaks collateral murder footage examined". London: The Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Archived from the original on June 30, 2017. Retrieved December 23, 2020.
  14. ^ "US soldier linked to Iraq helicopter video leak charged". BBC News. BBC. July 6, 2010. Retrieved December 23, 2020.
  15. ^ [9][10][11][12][13][14]
  16. ^ Cite error: The named reference Reuters: leaked video was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference PolitiFact was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  18. ^ Cite error: The named reference cohen-cnn was invoked but never defined (see the help page).