Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan on Sunday released a video of its militants holding a Shoulder launch Missile, which the militant group claimed to have used in downing a Pakistan military helicopter killing ambassadors of the Philippines and Norway and five others in the PoK.
A video released by a jehadist media forum shows at least four masked militants with the surface-to-air missile (SAM-7 B) allegedly used in hitting the Mi-17 that crashed in Naltar valley of Gilgit-Baltisitan in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. In a written message in Urdu just before the start of the video, the militant group claimed that the helicopter was turning due to which the missile hit the tail rotor of the helicopter so it did not get destroyed fully in the air. The message claimed that the missile was fired from a distance of 3 kilometers to down the helicopter on Friday.
The Russian SAM-7 Model or SAM-7 B can hit a target up to a distance of 3 kilometres. The SITE Intelligence Group, a US-based website that monitors extremist groups, also put video on its website.
Norwegian envoy leif H larsen and Domingo D lucenario Jr of the Philippines were killed along with the wives of the Malaysian and Indonesian ambassadors, besides two army pilots and a Pakistani crew member after the helicopter crashed. The Taliban had claimed responsibility for the downing of the chopper and said premier Nawaz Sharif was their target.
“The helicopter was shot down by an anti-aircraft missile, killing pilots and many foreign ambassadors,” TTP’s main spokesman Muhammad Khorasani had claimed after the crash.