US intelligence: Militias shoot down Boeing over Ukraine by mistake

ItarTass: Meanwhile, the representatives of the intelligence say they have no evidence of Russia's direct complicity to the occurred tragedy

Dmitry Kirsanov for ITAR-TASS/. American intelligence services believe that Malaysia Airlines’ passenger plane was shot down July 17 by militias as a result of a mistake, since they apparently took it to be a military jet. Representatives of the US intelligence reported this to journalists at a special briefing arranged by the US Administration on Tuesday.

They recognized that Washington doesn’t have any information on Russia’s direct implication in the occurred tragedy. At the same time, the briefing’s speakers stated that Russia "created the conditions" that resulted in the air crash in eastern Ukraine. In addition, they blamed Moscow for continuing supplying Ukrainian rebels with weapons, including air defense systems and tanks.

“The main theory is that it were the separatists [who did this],” one of the speakers said. "We don't know a name, we don't know a rank and we're not even 100 percent sure of a nationality." of those who shot at the Boeing, a US intelligence representative said.

On what the intelligence’s conclusions are based

No technical data proving the US Administration’s conclusion that it was the militias who are responsible for the Malaysian plane crash has been provided at the briefing. The intelligence representatives proved their conclusions referring to satellite images, radio interception data and even to information posted in social networks. The speakers did not deny that US intelligence services confirmed the trustfulness of far from all these data found in open sources.

According to the estimates of the American intelligence officers voiced at the briefing, to date the militias have downed 12 planes and helicopters of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

The representatives of the American intelligence denied the possibility of Ukrainian army’s implication in the tragedy. They claimed Ukraine’s Armed Forces did not have any anti-aircraft defense systems able to hit the Malaysian Boeing in the catastrophe’s area as of July 17.