Broadcast on UK TV last night, the video was filmed in the cockpit of a US airforce F-16 fighter plane. The pilot is given clearance by ground control and then locks the fighter's bomb guidance system onto a crowd running along a street.
It is not clear whether these people were armed insurgents or innocent civilians, and the footage does not show how many people died.
The Pentagon has confirmed that the footage is genuine and was shot in April this year. Channel 4 reported that the Pentagon is investigating, although it has not yet explained why this group of people were targeted.
Several gruesome video clips showing fighting in Iraq have been circulating online this year, although many European broadcasters have chosen not to air such graphic footage.
One clip, showing apparently unarmed and injured men being shot by a US Apache helicopter, was broadcast by ABC News in the US in January. Copies of the footage were available on the web soon afterwards, and dotJournalism coverage led to a German Panorama documentary in February.
During the documentary, international law expert Professor Stefan Oeter confirmed that the shooting of a wounded person is a war crime, and Viet Nam veteran General Robert G Gard described the event as 'inexcusable murder'.
Another clip, first broadcast in October 2003 by CNN, shows marines cheering after shooting an unarmed and seriously injured man.
More news from dotJournalism:
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Iraq killing video story re-surfaces in mainstream press
Video of attack on Syrian Kurds is smuggled out online
Iraq video clip killings trigger TV investigation
Apache killing video becomes viral news
See also:
Channel 4: http://www.channel4.com/news/2004/10/week_2/05_iraq.html
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