40 bodies from crash back on Dutch soil

Rebels down 2 Ukrainian fighter jets 20 miles from Malaysian plane wreckage

Pallbearers carry a coffin out of a military transport plane towards a hearse during a ceremony to mark the return of the first bodies, of passengers and crew killed in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, from Ukraine at Eindhoven military air base, Netherlands, Wednesday, July 23, 2014. After being removed from the planes, the bodies are to be taken in a convoy of hearses to a military barracks in the central city of Hilversum, where forensic experts will begin the painstaking task of identifying the bodies and returning them to their loved ones. (AP Photo/Phil Nijhuis)
Pallbearers carry a coffin out of a military transport plane towards a hearse during a ceremony to mark the return of the first bodies, of passengers and crew killed in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, from Ukraine at Eindhoven military air base, Netherlands, Wednesday, July 23, 2014. After being removed from the planes, the bodies are to be taken in a convoy of hearses to a military barracks in the central city of Hilversum, where forensic experts will begin the painstaking task of identifying the bodies and returning them to their loved ones. (AP Photo/Phil Nijhuis)

EINDHOVEN, Netherlands -- Victims of the Malaysian jetliner shot down over Ukraine returned to the Netherlands on Wednesday in 40 wooden coffins, carried to 40 identical hearses, as flags at half-staff flapped in the wind.

The carefully choreographed, nearly silent ceremony contrasted sharply with the boom of shells and shattered glass in eastern Ukraine as pro-Russia rebels fought to hang on to territory and shot down two Ukrainian fighter jets.

Dutch residents made up the majority of the 298 victims of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which was blown out of the sky last Thursday. The crash has intensified anger at the Ukrainian separatists suspected of bringing it down with a surface-to-air missile.

Investigators in a lab in southern England began studying the plane's "black boxes" Wednesday in hopes of learning about the Boeing 777's final minutes. The Dutch Safety Board, which has taken control of the investigation, said the cockpit voice recorder suffered damage, but its recordings were intact. Specialists planned to start studying the flight data recorder today.

In the Netherlands, families had spent days waiting while their loved ones' remains lay in sweltering fields in eastern Ukraine before being gradually moved by truck, train and plane. Those that arrived Wednesday were still unidentified.

"If I have to wait five months for identification, I can do it," said Silene Fredriksz-Hoogzand, whose son Bryce and his girlfriend Daisy Oehlers died in the crash. "Waiting while the bodies were in the field and in the train was a nightmare."

Two more planeloads of victims will be flown to Eindhoven today, the Dutch government said.

In eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, the rebels said they attacked two Ukrainian air force jets in the same area where the passenger plane fell last week.

Ukraine's Defense Ministry said the Su-25s were shot about 20 miles south of the wreckage from the Malaysian jet. The separatist group known as the Donetsk People's Republic said on its website that one of the pilots was killed and another was being sought by rebel fighters.

The attack revived questions about the rebels' weapons capabilities -- and how much support and training they are getting from Russia.

White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said Wednesday that the downing of the fighter jets "speaks to the pattern we've seen over the last several weeks, which is Russian-backed separatists armed with Russian anti-aircraft posing risk to aircraft in Ukraine."

Rhodes said the U.S. believes it has a "pretty clear case" that responsibility for downing the Malaysian plane lies with the Russian-backed separatists. He acknowledged that the U.S. does not know who "pulled the trigger" and said that would be the hardest thing to determine.

While the insurgents deny having missiles capable of hitting a jetliner at cruising altitude, rebel leader Alexander Borodai has said his fighters do have Strela-10M missile systems, which are capable of hitting targets up to an altitude of 11,500 feet. They also have shoulder-fired missiles with a shorter range.

The rebels also said they shot down an Antonov-26 military transport plane early last week with a shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile. The Kiev government has hinted that the Antonov was flying too high for the rebels to hit it, suggesting Russian involvement.

Also Wednesday, rebel leader Pavel Gubarev wrote on his Facebook page that 30 rebels were injured in fighting and that his men retreated from the villages of Chervona Zorya and Kozhevnya, on the Russian border about 30 miles from the sunflower fields where the Malaysia Airlines plane fell.

The battles are complicating the investigation into the passenger jet crash.

Dutch Safety Board spokesman Tjibbe Joustra said about 25 investigators are in Kiev analyzing photos, satellite images and radar information but had not yet gained access to the crash site.

Independent military analysts said the size, spread, shape and number of shrapnel impacts visible in a photograph of the wreckage all point to a missile system like the SA-11 Buk. U.S. analysts also have concluded that an SA-11 was the likely weapon.

Ukraine and Western nations are pressing the rebels who control the crash site to allow an unfettered investigation, something Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would use his influence to achieve. Russia has denied any involvement in the crash.

But U.S. State Department spokesman Marie Harf laid direct responsibility on Putin.

"These Russian separatists, who we strongly believe fired this missile, would not be there operating without the support of President Putin and the Russian government, would not have been trained without the support of President Putin and the Russian government, would not be armed without the support of President Putin and the Russian government," she said. "They would not be there doing what they're doing, period, so they could fire an SA-11, without the support of President Putin and the Russian government."

Information for this article was contributed by Mike Corder, Matthew Lee, Julie Pace and Jona Kallgren of The Associated Press.

A Section on 07/24/2014

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