US intelligence officials are expected to present data backing up the theory that pro-Russian rebels are responsible for the downing of flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine.
The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was blown out of the sky on Thursday by what is believed to have been a surface-to-air missile, killing all 298 passengers and crew on board.
“There has been a lot of evidence that’s already been presented that paints a pretty compelling picture,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.
“I do expect that you’ll hear from intel officials later today who will have some more data to present and some more evidence to indicate — I guess some more evidence to educate you about what we know so far about that situation.”
Mr Earnest did not go into more detail about what was to be released.
The United States has alleged that the plane was shot down by an SA-11 surface-to-air missile system from an area in eastern Ukraine controlled by the Moscow-backed separatists.
“The Ukrainian military was not operating anti-aircraft weapons in that area at that time,” Earnest reiterated.
Yesterday President Barack Obama voiced outrage that the probe into the downing of the airliner was being hampered by Ukrainian rebels and demanded that Russian leader Vladimir Putin force them to cooperate, saying Moscow had “direct influence over these separatists”.
Mr Putin, who has borne the brunt of international fury, pledged yesterday to “do everything” to influence the separatists and ensure a full probe into the crash.
In a news conference yesterday, Russian defence chiefs offered two alternative theories about what happened to MH17, the first being that it was possibly shot down by a Ukrainian SU-25 fighter jet. Moscow said its own radars detected the fighter tracking near the Boeing 777 at the time it crashed and noted the plane was armed with air-to-air R-60 missiles that could shoot down the passenger jet.
US officials dismissed the claim as “desperate” propaganda, pointing out that Ukrainian fighters cannot operate at 33,000 feet where MH17 was flying and that Ukraine had told Washington that none of its planes was in the air at the time.
Russia also suggested MH17 might have been shot down by a Ukrainian government surface-to-air Buk missile system rather than a Russian-supplied system provided to rebels by Moscow.
source: theaustralian.com
STUDIO 3 NEWCASTLE AUSTRALIA 