Rebels blamed for Russian helicopter crash

Chechen rebels shot down a Russian transport helicopter last week causing the country’s biggest military air disaster, investigators claimed today.

The Mi-26 helicopter crashed on August 19 in a minefield near Khankala, Russia’s’ main military base in Chechnya, killing 116 people. Another 31 people on board were injured, some of them gravely.

The commission investigating the crash has concluded that a portable anti-aircraft missile was used to bring down the giant aircraft, officials told Russian news agencies today.

A launcher for a shoulder-fired Stinger rocket was reportedly found near the crash site, local media said.

Russian reports later quoted Colonel Sayed-Selim Peshkhoyev of the Interior Ministry as saying troops had arrested a Chechen militant suspected of involvement in the downing of the helicopter.

But later a top Russian prosecutor later said the cause of the crash was still uncertain.

"All allegations to the effect that the cause of the air crash is known and that it was a missile strike are premature," Deputy Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky said.

He also denied reports that troops had arrested a Chechen militant suspected of involvement in downing the aircraft, saying no arrests have been made in the case.