Audio intercepted by Ukrainian authorities in the hours after the downed Malaysian airplane indicates that Russian separatists at first cheered what they believed was the take-down of a transport plane — and then expressed shock and anger, when they realized the craft contained civilians.
The New York Times first reported the taped conversations on its website. In the first call, a voice believed to belong to separatist commander Igor Bezler said of the downed craft: “It’s smoking.”
In the second call, a man at the crash scene begins to describe what he sees — bodies between seats — and then fields a question about what types of weaponry he notices.
The Atlantic reported that someone asks: “Any weapons?”
He replies, “Absolutely nothing. Civilian items, medical stuff, towels, toilet paper.”
The voice then asks, “Are there documents?”
And the man reportedly on scene says, “Yes, of one Indonesian student, from a university in Thompson,” The Atlantic reported.
The third call reveals the separatists took on a tone of shock at their error.
The man at the scene reports that the crash area is littered with “lots of corpses of women and children,” The Atlantic reported. And then another voice said: “They were carrying spies. [Expletive] them. They shouldn’t be [expletive] flying. There’s a war going on.”
And then the other voice, ostensibly at the scene of the crash, replied: “Got it,” The Atlantic reported.
Fox News reported Friday morning that defense officials — including those in the United States — say they don’t have any reason to doubt the authenticity of the audio.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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