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we begin with breaking news as a passenger plane is shot down by terrorists over ukraine and 298 people are killed. now, the hunt to find those responsible begins. ukraine blaming pro-russian militants and russia blaming ukraine. this morning, live team coverage on new information we have been learning about the crash and motives for the crime. innocent passengers who were caught in the cross fire. good morning and welcome to "early start." i'm lara in for christine romans. >> i'm john berman. a lot going on this morning. it is friday, july 18. it is 5:00 a.m. in the east. we begin with the latest on the attack that brought down, that shot down flight 17. wreckage, human remains strewn across miles of eastern ukraine. a jet shot out of the sky. a source tells cnn the evidence

points to pro-russian separatists as the suspects attackers. president obama is warning the world is watching as concern grows that the crime scene there is being compromised. our coverage of the crash of flight 17 begins with nic robertson live in kiev. nic, give us a sense of the latest developments this morning. >> reporter: well, the very latest from here, emotions running very high in a statement the prime minister appeared emotional, said there should be just this -- i'll delete the expletive here but expletive that should be justice for those responsible for committing this crime. at this moment, we understand the international monitors are just a couple hours drive away from the crash scene. we have to stress that these are military monitors monitoring the ongoing conflict, they are not international investigators.

they say they will try to determine when and if they arrive at the scene if they can play a role in handing the black boxes to the ukrainian governments. so far, pro-russian separatists say they have control over the black boxes. the ukrainian government says they have intercepted phone conversations between separatists and the russian handlers saying they accidentally shot down this civilian airliner thinking it was a ukrainian military aircraft. the government here says 121 bodies recovered so far. 95 people representing the government here in this area. we have to stress, again, an area that government doesn't control. they have 95 people searching the area using 18 vehicles. however, they are hampered by the separatist armed groups, hampered by the size of the area the debris is strewn. john? >> who has control of that area

is so crucial because that is who has control over the investigation. the debris, the black boxes, which could point further to how all this happened. the ukrainian government says, in addition to the phone calls and the u.s. evidence of radar signals and signals of things being fired into the air. they have what has happened in the last several days with planes being shot down. >> reporter: they do. they point to the fact that three days ago, a ukrainian army 26, a transport aircraft was shot down in that area. the day after a fighter jet was shot down in that area. the pilot ejected safely. another fighter jet, was shot at as well within the last 48 hours as well. this, all of this, evidence the government is putting forward

phone calls we cannot verify. all of this is painting a very clear picture of the ukrainian authority that is the pro-russian separatists are responsible. they are saying they will allow access to international investigators ar international teams to get in. again, they don't come under a unified command and there are many cases over recent months where the international monitors have been taken prisoner and held for days, if not weeks at a time. john? >> nic robertson live for us in kiev. thanks for the update. we are waiting to find out the identities of the 283 passengers and crew members on board malaysian airlines flight 17. here is how president obama reacted to the tragedy during his appearance in delaware. >> will offer any assistance we can to help determine what happened and why. as a country, our thoughts and prayers are with all the families and passengers wherever they call home. >> the president has directed

secretary of state john kerry and the rest of his national security team to reach to the countries directly impacted by the downing of flight 17. kerry released a statement saying quote, we are horrified by the crash of flight 17. united states government remains prepared to assist with a credible international investigation anyway we can and we will continue to be in touch with all relevant partners as we seek the facts of what happened. now the u.s. joined a host of countries banning flights over eastern ukraine and this morning, we have learned the nationalities of many of the passengers and crew on board the plane. more than half the passengers, 173 people were from the netherlands. some heading to australia ya to attend the 20th international aids conference. 44 from malaysia. 27 australian. so far, there's no word of any of the victims from the united states but 20 of those

fatalities remain unverified. meanwhile, russian leader, vladimir putin insisting ukraine is responsible for creating the situation that allowed it to take place. he ordered his top military officials to provide all the help needed to shed light on what he calls a criminal act. mr. putin saying there's no doubt, the country it happened bears responsibility. the tragedy would not have happened if there was peace in the country if military operations had not resumed in the southeast of ukraine. u.s. officials determined the ukrainian military did not have the ability to launch a missile where the attack took place. former secretary of state, hillary clinton says the evidence looks pretty clear. >> there does seem to be some growing awareness that it probably had to be russian insurgents. how we determine that will

require some forensics but then, if there is evidence pointing in that direction, the equipment had to come from russia. what more the russians may or may not have done, we don't know. i read as we were walking in today to talk to you, the russian stock market dropped. there's a great deal of concern that not only was a civilian plane shot down, but what this means about the continuing conflict in eastern ukraine and the role that russia is playing. >> let's bring in retired colonel. he's joint staff at the pentagon. he joins us live via skype. from an intelligence perspective, how problematic is it, it's the pro-russian separatist that is control the crime scene? >> it's a huge problem, john. one of the best things we have, of course, is the evidence you

pointed out in terms of the phone intercept that the ukrainians revealed to the public. the other part is what we call measurement intelligence and signatures. that includes the signatures from the rocket itself that downed the aircraft. but, in terms of physical evidence, not having access to the crash site can severely impede the investigation not only from an intelligence perspective, but a crash reconstruction perspective and that's an issue. >> they tell us that ukraine did not have the capability in the region, let alone the motivation to shoot down this plane. is it at all possible that they might have had weaponry that the u.s. is not aware of? >> well, i think, lara, we have an idea what they have in their

inventory. we have been examining that region for a long time, since before the end of the cold war. the ukrainians shared a lot of what they have in terms of inventory not only with us, but the european powers. i think we have a good idea of what they have. what is as risk, though, is there could be a rogue operator involved. there's the possibility there may be a piece of equipment such as a buk missile system moved from one area to the other. that is a certain risk we have in terms of determining exact origin and knowledge of where this missile was fired from. 90% chance is that we have a very good understanding of where it came from. the question now will be, walk it back and make sure we have the exact co-ordinates where the missile was launched from. then we have the ability to

determine who did the launching. >> i have a question about the missile itself. is it possible when such a missile is launched, it can aim at one target like a transport plane, then hones into a larger target such as a passenger plane? >> yes. it's theoretically possible, especially if the planes are flying at similar altitudes and in close proximity to each other. because the missiles known by the code name of sa-11 and sa 13 are heat seeking, they could be targeted in one area and moved over to and automatically moved to the bigger, more heat emanating target. if that's the case, it's rare. there's no indication there were two aircraft in close proximity to each other, at least not at this time. >> it may be more likely, in fact, the people shooting didn't have the training or didn't have the knowledge of what they were

shooting at and thought they were shooting at one thing and it ended up being a tragic, criminal mistake. >> absolutely. a key thing in a war environment is everybody is on a hair trigger. the adrenaline is pumping. they are looking at how to score another kill. that's the mind set that you are dealing with. because you are dealing with that kind of mind set, the mistakes are going to happen. we had a similar incident involving the u.s. navy when we shot down the iran air jet in 1988 from tehran and dubai. the misidentified them as an f-14 fighter. a lot of differences. that should not have happened. because it did, it happened because the u.s. forces were engaged with the iranians in an active shooting war at that time. it can lead to big mistakes and

people aren't thinking about the fact that commercial airliners are flying over their territory when engaged in conflict like this. >> the 298 people on board that flight. thank you so much for joining us this morning. really important insight and perspective. for the second time in four months, the malaysian government and people are reeling. the prime minister vowing to find out what happened and bringing the attackers to justice. he is demanding investigators have full access to the crash sight. i want to bring in andrew stephens live in kuala lumpur. you were at a news conference held by malaysian officials there. there were a lot of questions they were facing about why this plane was on this route to begin with. >> that's right, john. a lot of questions con

considering changing the route because of safety concerns. the malaysians are saying 15 of the 16 carriers in this region are using that route or have used the route and they continuely described it as safe and approved by the international civil aviation organization. this is their defense, they were told it was safe. if it was good enough for icao, it is good enough for them. the questions came back to why did you put the passengers at risk? is this your responsibility for what happened? they denied all that. they kept coming back to the fact this was a safe and approved route. they also made it clear, the investigation here is going to be handled by the ukrainians. that's under international protocol. they will contribute to that. as you say, john, the secondary disaster, shock and grief are

words you hear here in the malaysian capital a lot. 239 people are still missing from flight mh-370. now, another 44 malaysians on mh flight 17 that went down with the plane. there is counseling going on here. they have learned lessons on how to handle the release of information and how to handle the grieving process and counseling the next of kin here. it's going to be a very, very difficult next few days. john. >> devastating to have twin devastations. >> we'll have more throughout the morning. first, breaking news in gaza. israel is launching a ground assault. thousands warned to evacuate as the tanks move in. we are live in gaza with the latest this morning, coming up after the break.

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another big story breaking in morning. israel launching ground invasion into gaza. confirming a soldier has been killed along with nearly a dozen palestinians. the tanks rolling into the northern -- over the northern border of gaza after ten days after aerial targets from hamas. carl is live from gaza city. give us a sense of what is going on and what you are seeing. >> reporter: john, a new phase of the israeli campaign is 12 hours old. it is a combined operation. there's been intense bombardment of the gaza slip from the north to the east and from the south to the air from the sea to the ground. artillery on the eastern border.

we saw those pounding on the border. we saw a chain of what appeared to be cannon or artillery fire firing into eastern gaza. now, what the israeli military says is they want to push across into the border as they have done with infantry troops and with armored units to try to shut down hamas militant tunnels. they have been trying to infiltrate israel and carry out actions there. that is what this phase of the fight is about now. overnight, israel decided to launch rockets and destroy the targets they weren't able to destroy previously from the air. of course, the civilian population is in the way. in the hours since this israeli offense started, the death toll

spans at 24 people killed and 200 more wounds. that gives an overall total since this offensive began more than ten days ago now 260 people killed, more than 2,00 wounds. the key figure there, the u.n. says 70% to 80% of the casualties are civilians. we, ourselves, yesterday evening saw that. we watched from our bureau window, as israeli air fire went into a building 300 yards from where we were. the toll from that strike, another three children killed. women and children among the dead here. israelis, this morning pushing ahead. we have been hearing air strikes. we have been hearing artillery throughout the morning. that seems as if it's going to be the picture to come until they achieve their objectives.

back to you john and lara. >> karl for us in gaza where israeli troops are on the ground. thanks. we are going to get back to the other breaking stories, malaysian flight 17 shot down in ukraine. the new warnings and why other airlines had been avoiding this path for months. that's ahead. [ aniston ] when people ask me what i'm wearing, i tell them aveeno®. [ female announcer ] aveeno® daily moisturizing lotion has active naturals® oat with five vital nutrients. [ aniston ] because beautiful skin goes with everything. aveeno®. naturally beautiful results™. aveeno®. we're trying our best to be role models.dels. we don't jump at the sound of the opening bell, because we're trying to make the school bell. corner booth beats corner office any day. we make the most of our time... and our money. the 2014 malibu.

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in response to the bombing

of flight 17, the faa expanded u.s. flight restrictions over eastern ukraine. >> there are certainly questions about the route flight 17 pilots took on their way to kuala lump lumpur. most have been avoiding the area because of the fighting. indra petersons is here to take a look at the dangerous flight path. >> getting closer to why the flight path changed yesterday. there's a lot of reasons flight paths change. one can be weather. the flight path to the south, the path they took yesterday is 200 miles to the north. take a closer look. the reason is because there was rain in the region. we were looking at thunderstorms in the region. typically, they fly farther down to the south. right to the middle zone and yesterday, they flew there, 200 miles to the north. i find this more interesting. you want to consider it is rain that brought it further to the north. if you look at the faa

guideline, the flight path they took to the south, that would have been more dangerous. only now have they expanded the restrictions to include the flight path area they did take yesterday. malaysia airlines does not have to follow the faa regulations. regardless, that was considered a safer area. the one thing to show is there were 21 other planes in the region. not to say there were no planes right now. russian airlines as well as private jets were flying in the restricted air space. >> it's incredible to think they wouldn't move the flight paths at an earlier time. just have them fly over areas that are so dangerous. >> that area may be mistaken identity. >> thank you very much. lolts of new information about the crash of malaysian flight 17. we will bring it to you with live team coverage. that is coming up next. erage pey drink something that is acidic on a daily basis.

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in the breaking news this morning, the crisis over the shootdown of malaysian airline flight 17 over ukraine. the passenger plane crashing with hundreds of people on board. now investigators are combing the wreckage and searching for flews as russia and ukraine point the fingers at each other. we have live team coverage breaking down the information we have on the crash, on this disaster. who shot it down and who was on board. welcome back to "early start."

i'm john berman. >> i'm lara in for christine romans. it is 31 minutes past the hour. >> we are going to begin with the search for the people who shot down malaysia airlines flight 17. right now, the wreckage, the body parts scattered across miles of eastern ukraine. the malaysian airlines jet flown out of the sky by what officials believe was a russian made surface-to-air missile. it points to pro-russia separatists as the suspected attackers. president obama warning the world is watching as concern grows that the crime scene is being contaminated and altered by the attackers. it is the pro-russian separatists who control this crime scene right now. our coverage begins with nic robertson who is live this morning in kiev. what's the latest? >> reporter: john, 121 bodies recovered so far. 95 investigators on sight moving

in 18 vehicles. they have hampered by armed separatists and hampered by the scale of the debris field. we have heard from the ukrainian prime minister, visibly shaken, using very strong language and calling for international help to bring to justice those responsible. this is what he said. >> we ask all respective governments to participate in this investigation. and to support the ukrainian government to bring to justice all these people who committed this international crime. >> reporter: very strong language there. we understand there are international monitors we should stress here just a couple hours drive from the crash scene. they are going to see if they can secure the black boxes. so far, pro-russian separatists say they have control over both

the flight data recorders on that aircraft, the international monitors from the organization for security and cooperation in europe. see if they can recover the black boxes for the ukrainian government. at this moment, however, that is unclear. certainly the same monitors, themselves have been held prisoner by the pro-russian separatists. it's a hodgepodge of groups there. the government says there's no truce there right now. fighting continues. the armed separatists hampering the investigation. john? >> you don't normally hear language like that from a world leader. those -- i'm sorry for the language. they are the words he used. the ukrainian government has the evidence that this attack, the shootdown of mh17 was carried out by pro-russian separatists. >> reporter: yeah, the government here released

recordings of conversations between people they identified as pro-russian separatists talking to what the ukrainian government identifies as the separatist russian handlers. during the phone conversations, the evidence, if you will, think they shot down the military aircraft, send people to the scene, discover that there are no military -- there's no military debris, no weapons in the fields they find. civilians on a commercial jet liner. this is all on tape. the government says they recorded. adding to that, what the government is also saying is that in recent days in that area, they have lost two, at least two of their own aircraft. transport aircraft and the fighter jet, sequoia 25 shot down in that area, again, by the pro-russian separatists. this is the evidence the

government is putting together. we can't verify it. for them, it's a very strong case, damming evidence against the pro-russian separatistsepar. >> an extremely tense situation to say the least. thanks. we are still waiting to find out the identities of the 283 passengers and 15 crew members on board malaysia airlines flight 17. no word of americans on the jet. here is how president obama reacted to the tragedy in his visit to delaware. >> offer any assistance we can to help determine what happened and why. as a country, our thoughts and prayers are with all the families and passengers, wherever they call home. >> the president directed secretary of state, john kerry, and the rest of the security team to reach out to the countries impacted by the downing of flight 17. kerry released a statement saying we are horrified be the crash of malaysian airlines

flight mh17. we are prepared to insist in a national investigation any way we can. the u.s. joined a host of countries banning flights over eastern ukraine. this morning, we are finding out the nationalities of passengers and crew on board the jet liner. more than half the passengers, 173 were from the netherlands. some believed to be heading to australia to attend the aids conference. 44 other people from malaysia. 27 people were australians. so far, no word of victims from the united states, however, 20 fatalities remain unverified. the russian leader, vladimir putin claims ukraine is responsible for the attack on flight mh17. he ordered his top military officials to help shed light on what he calls a criminal act.

president putin says there is no doubt the country on whose territory this terrible tragedy happened bears responsibility. this tragedy, he says would not have happened if there was peace in the country, if military operations had not resumed in the southeast of ukraine. the ukrainian military did not have the ability to launch a missile from this pro-russian region where it took place. listen to the reaction from hillary clinton. >> there seems to be some growing awareness that it probably had to be russian insurgents. now, how we determine that will require some forensics, but then, if there is evidence pointing in that direction, the equipment had to come from russia. what more the russians may or may not have done, we don't know. i read, as i was walking in today to talk with you, the russian stock market dropped. there's a great deal of concern

that not only was a civilian plane shot down, but what this means about the continuing conflict in eastern ukraine and the role russia is playing. >> former secretary of state, hillary clinton there. i want to go to london and bring in matthew chance who joins us by phone. we heard vladimir putin blamed ukraine for creating this situation where the attack took place. it took place over a conflict region. he blames them for that. however, he did not say who pulled the trigger that shot the missile that brought the plane down. the u.s. thinks it's pro-russian separatist separatists. what are you hearing this morning? >> caller: choosing his words very carefully. ukraine is ultimately responsible for the tragedy.

[ inaudible ] some russian insurgents -- general security situation vladimir putin short of -- [ inaudible ] to increase pressure on -- to avoid potential -- ratcheted up sanctions.

>> we don't have a great connection there with matthew chance. we are going to move on. he was talking about the international bickering, the finger pointing that is over the situation in ukraine and how this flight may have been shot down. the fact remains, there were 298 people on board that flight. 298 souls and more than half were from the netherlands. we want to bring in erin mclaughlin. >> that's right, john. the netherlands is very much a country in mourning of the 280 passengers that were on board that flight, mh17. 173 were dutch nationals. today, in holland, the flags are flying at half mass.

i'm here at the airport, the very airport that that plane, yesterday, originated from. flights are leaving as usual, including that same flight, flight mh 17 from here to kuala lumpur. it's expected to take off in a couple hours. now, meanwhile, the relatives, friends of the victims that were on board the plane are being cared for in a hotel not far from here. officials here in amsterdam are being protective of their privacy, their security blanketing the entire hotel. we understand from an airport official malaysian airlines is trying to arrange from for a chartered flight so some of the relatives can see the crash site. we are trying to reach out to malaysia airlines for more on that.

it's difficult to imagine the shock, the pain, the suffering of the relatives and friends of those victims. we also have heard from one woman who says she was supposed to have been on board that flight, but she and her baby simply arrived here at the airport too late. listen to what she had to say. >> i'm shaking. i don't know what to do. physically sick. coming to the airport. just crying. i'm thinking i have been given a second chance. >> reporter: you can see a mixture of relief and shock. also expressing his own shock is the dutch prime minister, he arrived early from germany here in holland last night. he gave a press conference which he called this the worst aviation disaster in dutch

history. condolences to him. he's also heard from russian president vladimir putin who asked him to convey his condolences to if friends and family of the victims. john? >> erin in amsterdam, so much grief. over half the passengers on mh17 were dutch. >> malaysian airlines is taking their duties to notify next of kin seriously. they are going to send 40 staff members to amsterdam to visit with the families and deal with them. back to the big story, a passenger jet shot down over ukraine, hundreds are dead. a dangerous flight path is being examined. we are going to break it completely down. it's coming up next. spokesperson: get a $1,000 turbocharged reward card

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there's certainly a lot of questions this morning about the route taken by flight 17. many airlines have been avoiding the air space since the fighting broke out. indra petersons is tracking that story for us. you found out something interesting. >> there are so many routes you can take. there's a lot of questions this morning about why mh17 went down 40 miles from the border of russia between the conflict zone. let's talk about where they typically had been flying. they have been flying much further down to the south. this flight pattern is 200 miles

northeast of the typical flight path. yesterday, they flew to the north due to thunderstorms. yesterday, they went much further to the north. that is the suggested reason they took the different flight path. what i found interesting is this flight path was further away from the faas restricted area. that previously incruded the crimea pe lins la and the black sea. the attack was further away from the restricts path. malaysia airlines does not have to follow faa restrictions, but you can see many airlines are following it. there were 21 planes in the region. today, just a few are flying in that region. a few russian planes in that region now. a scary thought there are still planes there. >> the flight routes will be planned and based on areas of conflict and working around that. >> let's hope so.

>> thank you very much. >> we will continue to follow the malaysian airlines flight 17. however, we are following a very major story as gaza has been inva invaded. israeli moving troops in after ten days of air strikes. we are live with what's happening in gaza. that's after the break.

another story we are keeping track of this morning, israel launched a ground invasion into gaza. the israeli army confirming a soldier has been killed along with a dozen palestinians. tanks rolling over the northern border of gaza after ten days of bombardments. karl is live this morning. we have seen air strikes in the past. now, we are moving to a ground invasion. what has become the new goal here? >> reporter: absolutely. it's been more than 14 hours since israeli's got boots on the ground on the gaza strip. they came across with infantry units and tanks in darkness hours. that was proceeded by intense bombardment from air, land and sea. the reason they are coming across is because they cannot take the war against hamas by

only carrying out air strikes. they need boots on the ground to destroy rocket launcher that is are concealed. they need to destroy tunnels used by the militants to borrow from the gaza strip into israel to carry out attacks there. that is the reason for this ground invasion. we have heard from the israeli prime minister to expect this ground invasion to get bigger, to get broader. it's the civilian population bearing the brunt of this. so far, the u.n. says more than 70% of the casualties are civilians. lara? >> ground invasions are rare in that area. we'll continue to keep our eyes on that. meanwhile, malaysian flight 17 has been struck down. we have a lot of information we have learned overnight. i'll bring it to you coming up next. (singing) ♪

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many new details emerged overnight regarding malaysian airlines flight 17 and are continuing to emerge. cnn will have you covered throughout the day with the latest breaking news. i have lost john berman here on "early start." perhaps he has shown up on "new day" somewhere. that's all for me and "early start." let's go to two major breaking stories. the attack on malaysia flight 17. the u.s. believes the plane was shot down over rebel-controlled ukraine. 298 people dead. the world now on edge. who shot it down? ukraine releasing this audiotape.

ukraine says that's russian separatist admitting to taking down the plane. vladimir putin pointing the finger right back as we learn more about those that were onboard. this morning, how was it taken down? will rebels let investigators on to the crash site? will this push the region to war. i'm wolf blitzer in jerusalem. the ground operation has begun in gaza. israel rolling into the gaza strip. >> we're not willing to beat our hostage. israel will pay a heavy price. >> i don't think it can be a solution. a special edition of "new day" starts right now. good morning and welcome to "new day" everybody. it is friday, july 18th. chris is on his way to ukraine right now. he's going to beni