It is too early to say whether the Malaysia Airlines plane shot down in separatist-controlled eastern Ukraine was a terrorist attack, a leading terrorism expert has said, arguing it was more likely a "military event gone wrong" involving one of the groups fighting in the Ukrainian separatist conflict.

The director of the Global Terrorism Research Centre at Monash University, professor Gary Bouma, told Guardian Australia the confirmation that 27 Australians had died was “terrible”, but it most likely was not an act of terrorism comparable to Australians being caught up in attacks such as the Bali bombings in 2002 or the 11 September attacks in New York and Washington in 2001.

At this early stage “it’s more likely to be a military event gone wrong, where they’ve claimed to have shot down a transport plane”.

“It wasn’t what they thought it was, that means it isn’t terrorism,” Bouma said.

“If it’s a terrorist attack it’s totally unclear who the targets are. This isn’t making sense as a terror attack. There’s no way the conflict in the Ukraine is related to Malaysia. Unfortunately, like it or not, terrorist attacks make sense.”

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/18/malaysia-airlines-crash-unlikely-to-be-terrorist-attack