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Pro-Russian rebels shot down Malaysia Airlines plan by mistake, say US intelligence officials

Politics
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The first bodies recovered from the Malaysia Airlines plane that crashed in Ukraine last week are to be flown to the Netherlands for identification, BBC reports. The Netherlands is holding a day of mourning for the 298 killed in the 17 July crash, 193 of whom were Dutch. Meanwhile, US intelligence officials say pro-Russian rebels shot down the jet by mistake, but they have not found any direct link to Russia. The plane crashed in a rebel-held area after apparently being hit by a rocket. In Washington, officials from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence presented evidence they had gathered on the involvement of the rebels. "It's a solid case that it's an SA-11 [missile] that was fired from eastern Ukraine under conditions the Russians helped create," said the officials, who requested that their names not be reported. They said the "most plausible explanation" for the shooting down of the plane was that rebels mistook it for another aircraft.