A part of the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 is pictured at its crash site, near the village of Hrabove, Donetsk region, July 20, 2014. REUTERS/Maxim Zmeyev

By Anton Zverev and Peter Graff

DONETSK Ukraine (Reuters) - Ukrainian army tanks were reported to be launching an assault to break pro-Russian rebels' hold on the eastern city of Donetsk on Monday in the first major outbreak of hostilities in the area since Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down last week.

A separatist leader said Ukrainian government forces were trying to break into Donetsk and fighting was under way near the railway station.

Sergei Kavtaradze, of the rebels' self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, said at least four tanks and armored vehicles were trying to break through into the city.

A Ukrainian military spokesman said the operation was in progress but would not comment on reports of troops entering Donetsk. "The active phase of the anti-terrorist operation is continuing. We are not about to announce any troop movements," Vladyslav Seleznyov said.

Reuters journalists also saw two rebel tanks heading towards Donetsk railway station.

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Members of the Ukrainian Emergencies Ministry and a crane operator work at the crash site of Malaysi …

As international horror deepened over the fate of the remains of the 298 victims of the air disaster, the first international investigators reached rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine on Monday.

Three members of a Dutch disaster victims identification team arrived in Donetsk and were expected to visit a railway station near the crash site where nearly 200 bodies have been stored in refrigerated wagons.

Rescuers said they had found a total of 251 bodies and 86 body fragments at the crash site and a second refrigerated train had arrived.

The shooting down of the airliner on Thursday has sharply deepened the Ukrainian crisis, in which separatists in the Russian-speaking east have been fighting government forces since protesters in Kiev forced out a pro-Moscow president and Russia annexed Crimea in March.

The United States and its allies have pointed the finger at the pro-Russian rebels and at Moscow itself over the downing of the plane although Russia has denied involvement.

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A rescue worker walks across a field carrying a flight data recorder at the crash site of Malaysia A …

SHOCK TURNS TO ANGER

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry laid out what he called overwhelming evidence of Russian complicity in the shooting down of the Malaysia Airlines plane.

Kerry demanded that Moscow take responsibility for actions of pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine whom Washington suspects of downing the jet with a missile, and expressed disgust at their "grotesque" mishandling of the bodies.

Television images of the rebel-controlled crash sites, where the remains of victims had lain decomposing in fields among their personal belongings, have turned initial shock and sorrow after Thursday's disaster into anger.

Emotions ran high in the Netherlands, the home country of about two thirds of the 298 people who died in the Boeing 777. The Dutch foreign minister has said the nation is "furious" to hear bodies were being "dragged around", while relatives and church leaders demanded they be rapidly returned home.

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Members of the Ukrainian Emergencies Ministry work at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH1 …

But the departure of dozens of corpses loaded into the refrigerated railway wagons was delayed on Sunday as Ukrainian officials and rebels traded blame over why the train had not yet left the war zone, and where or when international investigators would be able to check it.

The U.N. Security Council is scheduled to vote on Monday on a resolution that would condemn the downing of the plane, and demands that those responsible be held accountable and that armed groups not compromise the integrity of the crash site.

In an apparent attempt at compromise with Moscow, the wording of the resolution, drafted by Australia, was changed to characterize the incident as the "downing" of the flight, instead of "shooting down", according to the final draft obtained by Reuters. Diplomats said it was unclear if Russia would support the final version.

In Washington, Kerry criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin and threatened "additional steps" against Moscow.

"Drunken separatists have been piling bodies into trucks and removing them from the site," he said on NBC television on Sunday. "What's happening is really grotesque and it is contrary to everything President Putin and Russia said they would do."

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A woman displays a message for families and victims of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, which was down …

Russia has blamed the Ukrainian military for the disaster. But while stopping short of directly blaming Moscow, Kerry put forward the most detailed U.S. accusations so far, based on the latest U.S. intelligence assessments.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond urged Moscow to ensure international investigators had access to the crash sites. "Russia risks becoming a pariah state if it does not behave properly," he told Sky television.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said he had spoken to Putin for the first time about the disaster. At least 27 Australian passengers were on the flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

Abbott said an Australian investigation team was in Kiev but had been unable to travel to the site. He said there had been some improvement with the Ukrainian government offering access.

"But there's still a hell of a long way to go before anyone could be satisfied with the way that site is being treated," Abbott said. "It's more like a garden cleanup than a forensic investigation. This is completely unacceptable."

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A woman is wheeled past a message for families and victims of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, which w …

After lying for two days in the summer heat, the bodies had been removed from much of the crash site by Sunday, leaving only bloodstained military stretchers along the side of the road.

As Ukraine accused the rebels of hiding evidence relating to the loss of the airliner, a separatist leader said items thought to be the stricken jet's "black boxes" were now in rebel hands.

Investigators from the U.N. aviation agency arrived in Ukraine to help to investigate the crash, but a senior official said safety concerns prevented them from reaching the crash site.

U.S. CASE

Kerry said the United States had seen supplies moving into Ukraine from Russia in the last month, including a 150-vehicle convoy of armored personnel carriers, tanks and rocket launchers given to the separatists.

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A Ukrainian coal miner takes part in a search operation at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Fligh …

It had also intercepted conversations about the transfer to separatists of the Russian radar-guided SA-11 missile system, which it blames for the Boeing 777's destruction. "It's pretty clear that this is a system that was transferred from Russia," Kerry said in an interview on CNN.

Kerry's evidence of a Russian connection tracked closely an official unclassified U.S. intelligence summary released over the weekend. It said intelligence analysts confirmed the authenticity of an audiotape conversation provided to the media by Ukrainian authorities of a known separatist leader boasting of downing the plane.

"We also have information indicating that Russia is providing training to separatist fighters at a facility in southwest Russia" that includes missile systems, it said.

The United States has already imposed sanctions on individuals and businesses close to Putin but Kerry indicated that President Barack Obama might go further. "The president is prepared to take additional steps," he told Fox News, although he ruled out sending in U.S. troops.

European Union ministers should be ready to announce a fresh round of sanctions at a meeting of the EU's Foreign Affairs Council this week, said a statement from British Prime Minister David Cameron's office, issued after telephone calls with French President Francois Hollander and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

(Additional reporting by Peter Graff in Hrabove, Pavel Polityuk, Natalia Zinets and Elizabeth Piper in Kiev, Jim Loney, Doina Chiacu, Ayesha Rascoe and Mark Hosenball in Washington, Michelle Nichols at the United Nations, Allison Lampert in Montreal, Lincoln Feast and Jane Wardell in Sydney, William James in London and Nicholas Vinocur in Paris; Writing by Giles Elgood and David Stamp; Editing by Tom Heneghan, Peter Cooney and Eric Walsh)

Violence erupts in city near Ukraine crash site

Government forces try to break into rebel-held Donetsk in the first major fighting since Flight MH17 was shot down.
Investigators arrive

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Ukraine Rebels: Black Boxes Will Be Returned

"A buildup of extraordinary circumstantial evidence ... it's powerful here," said Secretary of State John Kerry, a former prosecutor, and it holds Russian-supported rebels in eastern Ukraine responsible for shooting down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, with the Kremlin complicit in the deaths of nearly 300 passengers and crew members.

"This is the moment of truth for Russia," said Kerry, leveling some of Washington's harshest criticism of Moscow since the crisis in Ukraine began.

"Russia is supporting these separatists. Russia is arming these separatists. Russia is training these separatists, and Russia has not yet done the things necessary in order to try to bring them under control," he said.

In a round of television interviews, Kerry cited a mix of U.S. and Ukrainian intelligence and social media reports that he said "obviously points a very clear finger at the separatists" for firing the missile that brought the plane down, killing nearly 300 passengers and crew.

"It's pretty clear that this is a system that was transferred from Russia into the hands of separatists," he said.

Video of an SA-11 launcher, with one of its missiles missing and leaving the likely launch site, has been authenticated, he said.

An Associated Press journalist saw a missile launcher in rebel-held territory close to the crash site just hours before the plane was brought down Thursday.

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Toys and flowers are placed at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 near the village of Hra …

"There's a buildup of extraordinary circumstantial evidence," Kerry said. "We picked up the imagery of this launch. We know the trajectory. We know where it came from. We know the timing, and it was exactly at the time that this aircraft disappeared from the radar. We also know from voice identification that the separatists were bragging about shooting it down afterward."

In one set of calls, said by Ukrainian security services to have been recorded shortly after the plane was hit, a prominent rebel commander, Igor Bezler, tells a Russian military intelligence officer that rebel forces shot down a plane.

Shortly before Kerry's television appearances, the U.S. Embassy in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, released a statement saying experts had authenticated the calls.

"Audio data provided to the press by the Ukrainian security service was evaluated by intelligence community analysts who confirmed these were authentic conversations between known separatist leaders, based on comparing the Ukraine-released internet audio to recordings of known separatists," the statement said.

A new set of recordings apparently made Friday also appears to implicate rebels in an attempted cover-up at the crash site.

In one exchange, a man identified as the leader of the rebel Vostok Battalion Alexander Khodakovsky states that two recording devices are being held by the head of intelligence of the insurgency's military commander. The commander is then heard to order the militiaman to ensure no outsiders, including an international observation team near the crash site at the reported time of the call, get hold of any material.

The man identified as Khodakovsky says he is pursuing inquiries about the black boxes under instructions from "our high-placed friends ... in Moscow."

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A piece of the crashed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 lies in the grass near the village of Hrabove, ea …

In another conversation with a rebel representative at the crash site who reports finding an orange box marked as a satellite navigation box, Khodakovsky is purported to order that the object be hidden.

U.S. aviation safety experts say they are especially concerned the site will be "spoiled" if it cannot be quickly secured by investigators. Based on photographs, they say it is a very large debris field consistent with an in-flight explosion and the main evidence to be collected would be pieces of the missile.

Because the integrity of the plane and actions of the pilots are not an issue, the experts do not believe the flight recorders will yield much useful information.

U.S. and Ukrainian authorities have been at the forefront of accusations that the separatists, aided by Russia, are responsible, although other countries, including Australia and Britain have offered similar, if less definitive, assessments.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said in an unusual front-page piece in the Sunday Times that there is growing evidence that separatists backed by Russia shot down the aircraft.

"If President (Vladimir) Putin does not change his approach to Ukraine, then Europe and the West must fundamentally change our approach to Russia," Cameron wrote.

Putin and other Russian officials have blamed the government in Ukraine for creating the situation and atmosphere in which the plane was downed, but have yet to directly address the allegations that the separatists were responsible or were operating with technical assistance from Moscow.

In his interviews, Kerry accused Russia of "playing" a dual-track policy in Ukraine of saying one thing and doing another. That, he said, "is really threatening both the larger interests as well as that region and threatening Ukraine itself."

He lamented that the level of trust between Washington and Moscow is now at a low ebb, saying it "would be ridiculous at this point in time to be trusting" of what the Kremlin says.

Kerry also said the administration was hopeful that the incident would galvanize support in Europe for increasing sanctions on Russia over its overall actions in Ukraine.

"We hope this is a wake-up call for some countries in Europe that have been reluctant to move," Kerry said, noting that President Barack Obama had signed off on a new round of sanctions on Russia the day before the plane went down.

Kerry made his comments in appearances on five talk shows: CNN's "State of the Union," ''Fox News Sunday," CBS's "Face the Nation," NBC's "Meet the Press" and ABC's "This Week."

___

Associated Press writers Peter Leonard in Kiev, Ukraine, and Joan Lowy in Washington contributed to this report.

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A Palestinian-American teen detained by Israeli security forces while on a family visit to the Middle East said Sunday he had been beaten, kicked and blindfolded after a cousin there was abducted and killed.

Fifteen-year-old Tariq Abu Khdeir flew home to Tampa last week and told The Associated Press in an interview from his home in Florida that he hopes he can eventually visit the region again and "come back safe."

"If I want to see my family members I hope I can," he said, adding "I don't want to have any problems with anybody."

Israeli authorities released Tariq three days after he was detained and sentenced him to nine days of house arrest while they investigated what they said was his participation in violent protests over the death of his cousin, 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir, a Palestinian living near Jerusalem.

Seated beside his mother in their Tampa home, the teen told AP that he did not take part in rock-throwing disturbances before he was picked up by Israeli security forces. He said he just was watching and listening to a commotion surrounding the investigation of the disappearance of his cousin when Israeli forces began shooting rubber bullets and tear gas into a crowd that had formed.

"I didn't do anything to them (Israeli authorities) to do this to me," he said.

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Tariq Abu Khdeir, 15, left, sits with his mother Suha Khdeir during interview in their home, Sunday, …

The teen said in the first moments of being picked up that he was slammed down. And during the ordeal, he said, he was kicked on several parts of his body and blindfolded. In June, the family had opened the trip that was to have lasted about six weeks.

Tariq said in the interview that he and Mohammed had become close friends following his arrival. They visited sacred sites including the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. They had fun, joked and played games. He said they also helped others in their neighborhood — setting up lights in neighbor's homes before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

"He took me to as many places as he could," Tariq said.

Mohammed was killed the fifth week of the visit, Tariq said, adding that the tenor of the trip immediately changed after the cousin disappeared and then was found dead.

"There was no next day," Tariq said.

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Tariq Abu Khdeir, 15, speaks during interview at his home, Sunday, July 20, 2014, in Tampa, Fla. (AP …

Tariq said he had gone to a bakery for about five minutes the day Mohammed disappeared, returning to find him gone.

The American teen spent the next hours with relatives trying to find out from police what had happened to his cousin. After Mohammed was found dead, a crowd filled with family members formed and started screaming at the police, Tariq said.

"Everything was getting so tense," he recalled in the interview.

The neighborhood calmed before security forces came back and started shooting rubber bullets and tear gas, according to Tariq.

"When they were shooting at us, I went into an alley so I could get a better view and I just started sitting there thinking . I wanted to know why this is happening," Tariq said.

He saw people on his left running and screaming for help. Right behind them were three soldiers, he said. Everyone scattered and ran from the alley. Tariq said he tried to jump a gate but fell.

"I was running because I didn't know why they (Israeli authorities) were running after me," he said.

Tariq said he was slammed down, head first, when detained. He added that his hands were tied behind his back and he was kicked in the face, stomach and ribs and went unconscious for a time. Tariq said he was taken to jail where he was blindfolded and still handcuffed.

Tariq said he felt the hits again, after his release, when he watched a video of his beating.

"I couldn't believe it. All the stuff I went through," Tariq said. "I was getting hit so much, I couldn't even say words."

Although the teen showed no visible injuries Sunday, his mother said Tariq has visited the hospital since.

Now he's getting ready to go back to school in a few weeks.

"It's been a tough summer," he said, noting what began as a "fun" trip suddenly turned for the worse. "They took my cousin, my best friend ... they took him and they killed him."

Sarcelles (France) (AFP) - A French rally against the deadly Israeli offensive in Gaza once again descended into chaos Sunday as protesters looted shops and riot police lobbed tear gas and rubber bullets into the crowds.

The demonstration in the northern Paris suburb of Sarcelles is the third to have deteriorated in the space of eight days in a country that counts the largest Muslim population in western Europe and a huge Jewish community.

A decision by authorities to ban protests in areas deemed too sensitive has also garnered controversy as they took place anyway and turned violent, while authorised ones elsewhere in the country -- as well as in other cities across Europe -- were peaceful.

From Vienna to Stockholm and on to Amsterdam, thousands rallied on Sunday to oppose Israel's offensive, which has left more than 400 Palestinians and 20 Israelis dead.

Though patrolled by police, few incidents were reported in those demonstrations.

"We're not anti-Semites, we're here for the people. We call on Europeans and Americans to finally do something," organisers of the 11,000-strong march in Vienna said.

But in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles -- sometimes nicknamed "little Jerusalem" for its large community of Sephardic Jews -- a banned but orderly demonstration of several hundred descended into chaos when dozens of youth -- some of them masked -- set fire to bins and lit firecrackers and smoke bombs.

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People take part in a demonstration in Marseille, southern France, on July 19, 2014, to protest agai …

Looters then began raiding shops, wrecking a funeral home and destroying its front window as several protesters shouted: "**** Israel!".

- Access to synagogue blocked -

Others raided a drugstore which caught fire. Young girls grabbed baby milk inside.

"We're going to get the cash register," one person shouted, his voice drowned by the noise of a police helicopter overhead and the alarm of a nearby pizzeria.

Security forces then fired rubber bullets in the direction of the looters.

Not far away, riot police blocked access to the local synagogue, where a group of young men stood armed with clubs and iron bars -- one of them flying an Israeli flag.

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An Israeli soldier gestures on a Merkava tank, as part of the Israeli army deployment near Israel …

The deadly bombing of Gaza has brought to light deep divides within French society -- a Jewish community increasingly concerned over anti-Semitism, a growing radical Islamic fringe, and far-left activists whose opposition to Israeli policies sometimes verges on anti-Semitism.

The violence in Sarcelles closely mirrored that of a rally Saturday in a northern district of Paris, when a protest that began peacefully spiralled out of control, leading to clashes with riot police and dozens of arrests.

Both rallies had been banned out of fear of unrest and amid concern that the Jewish community would be targeted after protesters last weekend tried to storm two synagogues in the French capital.

Some commentators in France, and the left-wing party which helped organise Saturday's march, railed against the ban, particularly as other protests in France and Europe took place without incident.

On Saturday, parts of central London were brought to a standstill as thousands marched against the Israeli offensive.

London saw both pro- and anti-Israel rallies on Sunday, but police kept demonstrators at a distance and no arrests were made.

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French Prime Minister Manuel Valls delivers a speech in Paris on July 20, 2014 (AFP Photo/Francois G …

Some 11,000 marched in central Vienna on Sunday to protest "the murder and oppression in Palestine".

"We're not anti-Semites, we're here for the people. We call on Europeans and Americans to finally do something," the organisers said at the start of the march.

Smaller protests of 500 to 600 people were also held in the Austrian cities of Graz and Linz.

In Amsterdam, they were some 3,000 marchers carrying signs including "Stop the war" and "Israel war criminals," an AFP correspondent said.

"It just has to stop. Children are being killed and they are innocent," said Ekrem Kara, 32, wearing a traditional Palestinian black and white keffiyeh scarf.

In Stockholm about 1,000 people protested.

- Another Paris rally -

France's Prime Minister Manuel Valls defended the decision to stop the Paris protest, saying the violence that unfolded "justifies all the more the brave choice by the interior ministry to ban a demonstration."

Speaking as he commemorated the anniversary of the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup -- a mass arrest of Jews in Paris on July 16 and 17, 1942 -- Valls warned of "a new form of anti-Semitism".

He said it was spreading "on the Internet, on networks, in working class areas, among young people who are often aimless, who have no awareness of history, who hide their 'hatred of the Jews' behind the facade of anti-Zionism and behind hatred of the Israeli state."

President Francois Hollande also hit out at anti-Semitism and racism Sunday, saying it would not be tolerated.

"The Republic is about being able to live together, to look at our history and at the same time to always be ready to defend democratic values, not to be influenced by arguments that are too far away from here to be imported, not to be swept away by global shock waves," he said.

Meanwhile, former French prime minister and leading right-wing politician Alain Juppe criticised the Israeli offensive, which he said was seeking to destroy Hamas but "mostly what we see is terrorised families caught in the trap of the Tsahal's bombardments".

On his blog, Juppe said he "does not understand the Israeli government's strategy", and called for an immediate truce.

By Haji Mujtaba

BANNU Pakistan (Reuters) - The Pakistani military said it killed 28 local and foreign militants in air strikes in the volatile northwest of the country on Sunday, as evidence emerged that civilians had died in previous strikes.

The bombing took place in the heavily forested Shawal valley, the military said in a statement.

It was part of an offensive that began last month to drive the Taliban from their stronghold in North Waziristan, a remote region that borders Afghanistan.

The area has been heavily bombed in recent days.

Residents say a bombing raid on Friday killed nine women, six children and two civilian men when their houses were hit.

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Pakistani police commandos celebrate a successful operation against terrorists in Lahore, Pakistan, …

Aadil Khan, whose house was among five that were bombed, said he saw the bodies of his relatives being pulled from the rubble.

The military ordered the entire population of North Waziristan to leave ahead of the offensive, but some families stayed behind, either because they were too poor to afford to move, had sick members or did not think their area would be targeted.

Residents say most militants moved out ahead of the ground offensive.

The United States has long urged Pakistan to take action against Taliban havens along the Afghan border. The Taliban and other militants used North Waziristan as a staging ground for planning attacks in Afghanistan.

The military says it has killed hundreds of militants in the offensive. It is impossible to verify their figures since the area is sealed off to journalists.

(Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Sophie Hares)

Pakistan military: 28 militants killed in airstrikes

The government offensive is part of an effort to drive the Taliban from their stronghold in North Waziristan.
Civilians bombed Friday