Yesterday LGF noted the Associated Press report on the crash of a US security contractors’ helicopter in Iraq. According to the AP, four of the five Blackwater employees killed were “shot execution style in the back of the head.”

Today I received an email from an unnamed person in Baghdad with knowledge of the incident:

Do not believe what you see in the media. Four agents and numerous BW personnel saw the remains, and there was NO INDICATION the four BW guys in the crashed helo were executed on the ground. We are awaiting the official autopsy from the States, but a visual inspection gave no indication of “shots to the back of the head”. This rumor of “shots to the back of the head” was leaked by someone in the government and was based on a false initial report.

Does this sound a little familiar?

This is a story to watch, and of course I’ll update as more information is available. But if it’s true there were no “execution style” killings, we may have another example of the AP letting themselves be used to spread enemy propaganda, intended to make things look worse than they really are in Iraq.

Was one of the sources for this report Al Jazeera?

Al-Jazeera broadcast images Wednesday recorded with a mobile telephone that purported to show smoking remains of the helicopter, and quoted an unnamed US officer as saying at least one of the victims had been shot in the head.

UPDATE at 1/25/07 10:04:57 am:

The latest AP report quotes unnamed defense and diplomatic officials:

In Washington, a U.S. defense official said four of the five killed were shot in the back of the head but did not know whether they were still alive when they were shot. The defense official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.

The helicopter was shot down after responding to assist a U.S. Embassy ground convoy that came under fire in a Sunni neighborhood in central Baghdad, said a U.S. diplomatic official in Washington.

A second helicopter also was struck, but there were no casualties among its crew, said the diplomatic official, who spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to make statements.

We have a battle of unnamed sources here, because the email I received contradicts another detail in this latest AP report. My source says that one of the casualties was in the second helicopter.

UPDATE at 1/25/07 12:26:42 pm:

Helicopter pilot Dan Laguna, Blackwater Aviation Program manager and brother of one of the fallen contractors, wrote a letter to Iraqslogger about it. He doesn’t mention any execution-style shots, and his letter seems to support that one of the casualties was in another helicopter that managed to return to safety. (Hat tip: Christina.)