Video
Collateral Murder
First published 5 April 2010 · US Department of Defense · 1 video (full 38-minute and edited versions) with US rules-of-engagement documents
Classified US Apache gun-camera footage of the 12 July 2007 attacks in New Baghdad that killed two Reuters staff. We released it on 5 April 2010.
Overview
Classified US military video from an Apache helicopter over New Baghdad on 12 July 2007. About a dozen people were killed, among them Reuters photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen and his colleague Saeed Chmagh. Two children were wounded. The crew's radio communications are on the tape.
I screened the video at the National Press Club in Washington on 5 April 2010 and published the full 38-minute recording, a subtitled edit, and the US rules of engagement for 2006, 2007 and 2008. Reuters had tried for years to get the footage under FOIA and been refused.
What reporting revealed
- Reuters photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and Saeed Chmagh, 40, were among about a dozen killed.
- Two children in a van that stopped to help a wounded man were wounded when the van was fired on.
- The US military first said all the dead were insurgents, then that the helicopters were in an active firefight.
- Reuters had sought the video under FOIA and been refused.
Catalogue records
Entries describing the release and related documents, with provenance and sources.
| Published | Cat. no. | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010-04-05 | FAN-0008 | Collateral Murder: Apache gun-camera video, New Baghdad, 12 July 2007 Classified gun-camera footage from a US Apache helicopter showing attacks in New Baghdad on 12 July 2007 that killed about a dozen people, including two Reuters staff; I released it through WikiLeaks on 5 April 2010. | Video |
Source
- Collateral Murder — original release — collateralmurder.wikileaks.org (Original publication)collateralmurder.wikileaks.org