BAGHDAD — A commercial helicopter contracted by the U.S. Defense Department was shot down by missile fire north of the Iraqi capital Thursday, and all nine people on board were killed, U.S. and Bulgarian officials said.
The Mi-8 helicopter went down about 12 miles north of Baghdad, the U.S. Embassy said. Video on television showed burning wreckage scattered across a wide area.
In Sofia, Bulgaria, the Defense Ministry said three of the victims were Bulgarians. The crew was Bulgarian, although no members of Bulgaria's 460-member military contingent in Iraq were on board, it said.
The U.S. military said the helicopter was contracted by the Defense Department. At the Pentagon, a senior defense official said there were six civilian contract workers aboard the aircraft. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he did not know the nationalities of those six victims or their employers.