Malaysia Airlines Plane Crash: At Least 22 Bodies Counted [Updated]

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) —  An Associated Press journalist has counted at least 22 bodies at the plane wreckage site in eastern Ukraine involving a Malaysia Airlines commercial flight.

The plane appeared to have broken up before impact and the wreck is scattered over a wide area in the eastern Ukraine village of Grabovo, about 25 miles from the Russian border. Malaysia Airlines has said 295 people were aboard the flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

Separatist rebels in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk are denying they're responsible for shooting down a Malaysia Airlines passenger plane. And Ukraine's president says his country's armed forces didn't shoot at any airborne targets.

Malaysia's defense minister says there's no confirmation that a Malaysia Airlines plane has been shot down, but he's directed the Malaysian military to find out what happened.

Ukraine's president says his country's armed forces did not shoot at any airborne targets, after reports that a Malaysian Airlines plane went down over Ukraine.

President Petro Poroshenko says Thursday "we do not exclude that this plane was shot down, and we stress that the Armed Forces of Ukraine did not take action against any airborne targets."

Poroshenko said "we are sure that those who are guilty in this tragedy will be held responsible."

[Original story] A Ukrainian official said a Malaysian passenger plane carrying 295 people was shot down Thursday over a town in the east of the country.

Anton Gerashenko, an adviser to Ukraine's Interior Minister, said on his Facebook page the plane was flying at an altitude of 10,000 meters (33,000 feet) when it was hit by a missile fired from a Buk launcher.

A similar launcher was seen by Associated Press journalists near the eastern Ukrainian town of Snizhne earlier Thursday.