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Missile downed Malaysia Airlines jet over Ukraine, US says

– Shot by mistake? –

There were conflicting claims of responsibility after the shocking new development in crisis-torn Ukraine, where fighting between separatists and the Western-backed government has claimed over 600 lives.

Poroshenko’s spokesman said he believed pro-Russian insurgents downed the jet.

“This incident is not a catastrophe. It is a terrorist act,” the spokesman, Svyatoslav Tsegolko, said on Twitter.

A flurry of comments on social media by rebel chiefs claiming they had shot down a Ukrainian army plane in the exact spot the Malaysian plane went down were hastily removed as they appeared to realise their error.

Alexander Borodai, prime minister of the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic”, meanwhile told AFP that separatist forces would be ready to commit to a truce for several days to allow full access to the site.

The shooting down of civilian aircraft is extremely rare, and if proved the case, the downing of the MH17 would be one of the deadliest yet. In 1988, 290 were killed when an Iran Air plane was shot out of the sky and 269 died when Soviet fighter jets downed a South Korean Boeing 747 in 1983.

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