MH17: US and Russia trade barbs over Malaysian jet crash

The US and Russia have traded accusations as the investigation into the Malaysia Airlines crash in Ukraine yesterday gathered pace.

US intelligence authorities said a surface-to-air missile downed the plane, Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur yesterday, killing all 298 people on board, most likely by pro-Russian separatists.

Ukraine accused + militants, aided by Russian military intelligence officers, of taking down the plane with a long-range, Soviet-era SA-11 ground-to-air missile.

Leaders of the rebel Donetsk People’s Republic denied any involvement and said a Ukrainian air force jet had brought down the intercontinental flight.

There were no survivors from the crash, which left wreckage and bodies scattered across a large swathe of rebel-held territory.

Flags are flying at half-mast across the Netherlands as the country mourns at least 173 of its citizens who died when the passenger jet was shot down in eastern Ukraine.

Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte called for a fully independent investigation into yesterday’s crash. “The next of kin of the Dutch victims and all the other nationalities have the right to know what happened,” he said.

Twenty-eight passengers were Malaysian, 28 Australian, 12 Indonesian, nine British, four German, four Belgian, three Filipino and one Canadian, one New Zealand and one Hong Kong. The nationalities of 18 of the dead are unconfirmed. All 15 crew were Malaysian.

Ukraine has called for an international inquiry to determine who attacked the plane and insisted it was not its military. Officials accused pro-Russian separatist rebels of shooting down the plane.

The rebels denied it and claimed government forces were behind the crash, which was denied by Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko.

Russian president Vladimir Putin blamed Ukraine, saying Kyiv was responsible for the unrest in its Russian-speaking eastern regions – but did not directly accuse Ukraine of shooting the plane down and did not address the key question of whether Moscow supplied the rebels with such a powerful missile.

Ukraine and the West have accused Russia of supporting the insurgents, a charge Moscow denies.

INTERNATIONAL REACTION

US president Barack Obama said evidence from the crash must remain in Ukraine so international investigators have a chance to look at all of it, officials said.

UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon also called for a transparent international investigation of the incident. The UN Security Council will discuss the issue today.

An angry Australian prime minister Tony Abbott demanded an independent inquiry into the downing, adding: “The initial response of the Russian ambassador was to blame Ukraine for this and I have to say that is deeply, deeply unsatisfactory. It’s very important that we don’t allow Russia to prevent an absolutely comprehensive investigation so that we can find out exactly what happened here. This is not an accident, it’s a crime.”

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