U.S. intelligence spotted the missile launch that took Malaysian Flight MH 17 down and killed 298 people last week.

A senior member of the administration told reporters that U.S. intelligence followed a missile that was fired from a pro-Russian separatist-controlled area in East Ukraine.

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According to sources, the missile followed a path that was characteristic of SA-11 launch, which was the surface-to-air missile system Russia used and supplied to the rebels.

However, it is not clear if the U.S. intelligence report was real-time monitoring, or if it was tracked back through surveillance after the attack.

Still, nobody knows who pulled the trigger.

However, sources said Russia is the only country with a capable system in the area, and this does not preclude Russian authorities from responsibility for the tragedy.

Sources also have added that what happened was that the separatists mistook the Malaysian passenger carrier for a Ukrainian military flight.

In the past weeks, several Ukrainian military aircrafts, mostly attack helicopters and low-altitude jets, have been taken down by the separatists using surface-to-air missiles.

The SA-11 heat-seeking missile is fired from a launcher using what is called a rudimentary radar system. However, the system cannot distinguish a commercial airplane from a military aircraft.

The missile radar system needs to be linked to another radar system to give an exact picture of the plane it is targeting. Last Thursday, this was not the case as the trigger was pulled and MH 17 crashed.

The question that remains to be answered and determined was who operated the system at the day of the tragedy.

"But still, this does not take the responsibility away from Russia. Not even if the shoot down happened by mistake," the official concluded.

TagsMissile fired at MH 17, US intelligence report, surface-to-air missile system