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Netherlands Say MH17 Most Likely Shot From Ground: Reports

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Dutch prosecutors said Friday that the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777, which crashed in eastern Ukraine in July, was most likely shot from the ground, but before charges could be laid the missile launch site should be defined.

MOSCOW, September 12 (RIA Novosti) - Dutch prosecutors said Friday that the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777, which crashed in eastern Ukraine in July, was most likely shot from the ground, but before charges could be laid the missile launch site should be defined.

"The most likely scenario was that the plane was shot down from the ground," Dutch chief investigator Fred Westerbeke told journalists in Rotterdam as quoted by AFP.

"When we know from where it was fired, then we can find out who controlled that area," he added.

On Tuesday, the Dutch Safety Board issued a preliminary report on the MH17 crash, saying that the Malaysia Airlines flight broke up in the air probably as the result of structural damage caused by a large number of high-energy objects that penetrated the aircraft from outside.

However, many international experts found the information from the report inconclusive.

The Dutch Safety Board stated that the investigation team will now be working towards producing its final report, which is due next summer.

On July 17, a Malaysia Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in Ukraine"s eastern region of Donetsk, killing all 298 people on board.

The reason for the crash is still a matter of debates. Kiev accuses independence supporters in eastern Ukraine of shooting the plane down, but cannot provide any evidence for this assertion. Local militia leaders say they do not have weapons capable of shooting down a plane flying at 32,000 feet.

Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry said that a Ukrainian combat jet was detected in close approach to the MH17 shortly before it crashed, a claim that can be proven by video shots made in the Rostov monitoring center.

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