DEVELOPING: As world leaders and families of the victims on ill-fated Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 struggled to find out why such a tragedy could occur, it is now becoming clear that this was no accident, and that the plane was actually targetted and shot down over Ukrainian air space. 

Online, reports have circulated worldwide that it was separatist rebels that are pro-Russian and seeking independence from Ukraine who could be responsible.

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They had even boasted on social media that they had shot down what they believed was a Ukrainian military aircraft, and not a civilian passenger aircraft carrying 298 people.

One of the more vocal leaders of the separatists, Igor Strelkov, had posted a comment on Russia's most popular social media site, that they had downed an Antonov-26 (AN-26), a Russian-made military aircraft capable of transporting large numbers of soldiers and military hardware. 

This type of aircraft is used extensively by Ukraine's military, which recently lost an AN-26 when it was shot down by missile fire from separatist positions in eastern Ukraine.

In Strelkov's post on VKontakte, he said, "In the vicinity of Torez, we just downed a plane, and AN-26. It is lying somewhere in the Progress Mine. We have issued warnings not to fly in our airspace. We have video confirming. The bird fell on a waste heap. Residential areas were not hit. Civilians were not injured."

The comment was posted at 5:16 p.m. local time, shortly before reports circulated about Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 having crashed near the Russian border. 

The post was deleted shortly after, but not before journalists and netizens were able to take screen shots of the post and circulated it on the internet.

In another telling post, even Russia's official news agency, ITAR-TASS, had posted a bulletin on its website Thursday, quoting separatist elements in Ukraine as saying they have shot down an AN-26 near Torez.

The story had the headline "Donetsk People's Republic Militia downs another Ukraine's AN-26 - eyewitness."

The bulletin read: "Militiamen of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) brought down a military transport Antonov-26 plane of the Ukrainian Air Force on the outskirts of the town of Torez, eyewitnesses said. A missile hit the AN-26, it fell on the ground, and caught ablaze, they said. On July 14, militiamen of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic downed another An-26 of the Ukrainian Air Force."

The story remained on the ITAR-TASS website up to Friday morning, accompanied by a photo showing large aircraft wheels in the foreground, and a man in civilian clothing taking photos in the background and what appears to be the tail section of a large aircraft among other debris.

Later in the morning, ITAR-TASS ran a story saying two Ukrainian jetfighters had been seen shadowing the Malaysia Airlines plane, minutes before the crash happened.

TagsIgor Strelko, ITAR-TASS, Ukraine