(SomaliNet) Belarus said on Saturday a missile caused a plane crash in Mogadishu that killed 11 of its citizens, while the Somali government said the incident looked more like an accident than an attack by ever bolder insurgents, Reuters reports. "The plane was shot down," Transport Ministry spokeswoman Kseniya Perestoronina said in Minsk, adding the large Ilyushin plane, in Somalia to assist struggling African peacekeepers, was hit at a height of 150 metres (500 feet). If confirmed, it would be the most spectacular strike yet by rebels fighting the Somali government, their Ethiopian military allies and the African Union (AU) force since the start of 2007. Both a local Somali radio and an Islamist Web site said a missile hit the Russian-made Ilyushin -- used by a Belarussian firm -- just after takeoff from Mogadishu on Friday afternoon. However, witnesses who saw the plane burning in the sky and then crashing could not confirm it had been shot first.
And Somali Interior Minister Mohamed Mahamud Guled insisted the incident had the hallmarks of a technical fault, though investigations were under way to confirm exactly what happened. "The plane took off at around five o'clock and as soon as it reached 10,000 feet altitude, the pilot reported an engine problem in engine number two and said he would turn back to the airport," he told a news conference in Mogadishu.