Photo: Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, IGP Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar and police officers in Kharkiv, Ukraine. – The Star
Malaysian special investigators are expected to finally enter the crash site of downed Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine today to begin their probe.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said that for as long as conditions on the ground were conducive for the investigation to proceed, the Malaysian team and its counterparts from the Netherlands and Australia would enter the crash site.
“A combined task force in Kharkiv has decided that a Malaysian team of 21 people will be deployed to the forward operations base in Soledar, about a four-hour journey from Kharkiv, at 2 pm (7 pm in Malaysia) today,” Bernama quoted him as saying yesterday.
The forward operations base in Soledar is located about an hour’s journey away from the crash site.
MAS Flight MH17 is believed to have been shot down and crashed over eastern Ukraine on Thursday, July 17. It was carrying 298 people on board; none survived. Of the total, 193 were Dutch citizens. Accusations have flown between the Ukrainian military and the pro-Russia separatist rebels vying for control of the area as to who shot down Flight MH17.
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