TEMPO.CO, Washington - United States intelligence officials believed that pro-Russian separatists most probably shot down the Malaysia Airlines plane MH17 "by mistake" last week, not realizing it was a civilian passenger plane."Five days into [the crash] it does appear to be a mistake," one of the officials told Al-Jazeera reporters on Tuesday, July 22, 2014.
The MH17 aircraft was shot down by a Russian-made SA-11 missile. As to who is responsible, no claims are yet to be made.
However, Ukrainian forces and the rebels had blamed each other over the incident. The Russians said that plane was shot down an Ukrainian Sukhoi Su-25 fighter plane. The claim was denied as the pictures showed that the attack was from a land to air missile, very different from the short range missile carried by the Su-25.
President Barack Obama's administration claimed that the airliner was brought down by an SA-11 ground-to-air missile fired from eastern Ukraine territory controlled by pro-Russian separatists.
Although the US had observed a flow of heavy weapons, including air defense systems, into Ukraine from Russia, intelligence agencies had never seen a shipment of SA-11 missiles being moved into the country.
AL JAZEERA | DEUTCHE WELLE | THE STAR
