Internet video appears to show dead US helicopter

An extremist group today posted an internet video that it said showed a US pilot being dragged along the ground, burning, after the crash of his Apache helicopter in Iraq.

The video, posted by a group that called itself the Shura Council of Mujahadeen, claimed that its military wing had shot down the craft, which the US military said went down on Saturday.

The footage in the video, which was emailed to reporters and posted on the internet, was blurry but the helicopter could be clearly seen.

It was not clear if the man being dragged in the video was wearing a US military uniform. But the extremist group, in audio and a statement attached to the video, said he was a US helicopter pilot.

Separately, the US military in Baghdad announced that it had confirmed the two pilots in the downed helicopter had died, and said it had recovered “all available remains found on the scene, given the catastrophic nature of the crash”.

The military statement said “the authenticity of the (website) video cannot be confirmed”.