Helicopter accident in Iraq kills 11

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A commercial helicopter was shot down by missile fire north of the Iraqi capital Thursday, killing 11 people, including six American contractors, officials said.\nBulgaria's Defense Ministry said the Russian-made helicopter was downed by missile fire and the victims included a three-member Bulgarian crew.\nA Toronto-based charter company said there were two bodyguards from Fiji on board, while Bulgaria's Transport Ministry said they were from the Philippines.\nThe Philippine mission in Baghdad said it had no information that any of its nationals were on the helicopter.\nIn Washington, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said the six Americans were employees of Blackwater Security Consulting -- a subsidiary of North Carolina-based Blackwater USA -- and were assisting the Bureau of Diplomatic Security in protecting American diplomats in Iraq.\n"They played a critical role in our effort to bring a better way of life to the people of a country who have not experienced freedom and opportunity for many years," Ereli said.\nHe said he could not confirm the cause of the crash.\nTwo U.S. military officials in Baghdad initially said the helicopter was contracted by the Defense Department, but the U.S. Embassy later said that was untrue. It gave no information on the contractor.\nIt was unclear whether the civilian employees of Blackwater were under contract to the Pentagon or the State Department, U.S. officials in Washington said.\nOn March 13, two American security contractors working for Blackwater Security were killed and a third was wounded in a roadside bombing south of Baghdad on the main road to Hillah.\nLast year, four Blackwater employees were killed in Fallujah, and their bodies were burned and mutilated. Two of the corpses were strung up on a bridge over the Euphrates River.\nThe deaths touched off a Marine assault on insurgents in the city.\nEreli said the U.S. government "routinely" hires contractors "around the world" to provide security for diplomats, facilities or the activities of people connected with the government.\n"There is a need for security that goes beyond what employees of the U.S. government can provide and we go to private companies to offer that," Ereli said. "That's a common practice. It's not unique to Iraq. We do it around the world."\nThe Mi-8 helicopter went down about 12 miles north of Baghdad, the U.S. Embassy said. Video on television showed burning wreckage from the craft and personal belongings scattered across a wide area.\nThe helicopter was owned by Bulgaria-based Heli Air and chartered by Toronto-based SkyLink Aviation Inc., said SkyLink air operations manager Paul Greenaway. The helicopter was flying to Tikrit, he said.\nThe Bulgarian military was not involved in the mission at all, officials in Sofia said.\nElsewhere Thursday, relatives of Iraqis who have disappeared in a Sunni militant stronghold known as the "Triangle of Death" gathered at a police station in Suwayra to examine photographs of the bodies of dozens of Iraqis that officials said were pulled from the Tigris River in recent weeks.\n"My cousin was kidnapped by terrorists, and he has been missing for two weeks," Jawad Hashim Shael said as he scanned the photos. "We have searched all nearby areas, but we still have no information about his whereabouts."\nOn Wednesday, interim President Jalal Talabani announced that more than 50 bodies were recovered, saying that was proof of claims that dozens were abducted from an area south of the capital last week despite a fruitless search by Iraqi forces.\nTalabani did not say when or where the bodies were pulled from the river, but he said all had been identified as hostages.\n"Terrorists committed crimes there. It is not true to say there were no hostages. There were. They were killed, and they threw the bodies into the Tigris," Talabani said. "We have the full names of those who were killed and those criminals who committed these crimes."\nShiite leaders and government officials claimed last week that Sunni militants abducted as many as 100 Shiites from the Madain area, 14 miles southeast of Baghdad, and said they would be killed unless all Shiites left town.\nBut when Iraqi forces moved into the town of 1,000 families, they found no captives, and residents said they had seen no evidence anyone had been seized.