A Malaysian airliner was shot down over the Ukraine on Thursday — killing all 298 aboard, including 23 Americans — and a top US official blamed Russia’s military.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said the passenger jet “was caught in the crossfire” between Ukraine and anti-government rebels and “was shot down by Russians,” who are supporting the rebels.

“Clearly that had to have been accidentally [and] not intentionally because it’s a commercial airliner. I don’t know what the motivation would be for it to be intentional,” said McCaul, who said he had been briefed on the crash by government officials. “In either event, it’s going to cause a real international incident.”

The Boeing 777 was cruising at 33,000 feet and headed from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it crashed near the Russian border about 4:30 p.m. local time (9:30 a.m. EDT) after it was shot down by a powerful Russian Buk rocket, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister said.

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