Dutch probe secret service role ahead of MH17 crash

 The Netherlands wants to know whether its intelligence services warned airlines of danger about flying over war-torn Ukraine prior to the downing of flight MH17 in July, officials said Tuesday, AFP reports.

Dutch officials are leading the probe into what brought down the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 over Ukraine and killed 298 people aboard, most of them Dutch, as well as why the flight route had been given the all-clear.

The Dutch safety board in charge of both inquiries asked the Intelligence and Security Services Oversight Committee (CTIVD) to investigate what assessment the domestic intelligence agency (AIVD) and military intelligence service (MIVD) made of flight routes over Ukraine ahead of the July 17 disaster.

"What information did the two services have prior to the MH17 crash about the security situation in eastern Ukraine, and how did they share this information with relevant aviation parties? What were the reasons for doing/not doing so?" the CTIVD said on its website.

The MH17 flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down over territory in eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian separatists, who have been fighting Kiev forces since April.

Ukraine and the West accuse Russia of supplying the rebels with a surface-to-air missile launcher, but Russia has said a Ukrainian military jet was responsible for the crash.

Three other commercial planes were flying in the vicinity of the Malaysia Airlines flight -- two Boeing 777s and an Airbus 330 -- when it was shot down at an altitude of around 10,000 metres (32,808 feet).