U.S. INTEL: INTENTIONAL EXPLOSION BROUGHT DOWN PRIGOZHIN PLANE
WASHINGTON — A preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment concluded that an intentional explosion caused the plane crash presumed to have killed a mercenary leader who was eulogized Thursday by Vladimir Putin, even as suspicions grew that the Russian president was the architect of the assassination.
One of the U.S. and Western officials who described the initial assessment said it determined that Yevgeny Prigozhin was “very likely” targeted and that the explosion falls in line with Putin’s “long history of trying to silence his critics.”
The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, did not offer any details about what caused the explosion. Pentagon spokesman Gen. Pat Ryder said press reports that a surface-to-air missile took down the plane were inaccurate.
The passenger manifest also included Prigozhin’s second-in-command, who baptized the group with his nom de guerre, as well as Wagner’s logistics chief. It was not clear why several high-ranking members of Wagner were on the same flight. The purpose of their trip to St. Petersburg was unknown.
In his first comments on the crash, Putin said the passengers had “made a significant contribution” to the fighting in Ukraine.
“We remember this, we know, and we will not forget,” he said in a televised interview with the Russian-installed leader of Ukraine’s partially occupied Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin.
Putin recalled he had known Prigozhin since the early 1990s and described him as “a man of difficult fate” who had “made serious mistakes in life, and he achieved the results he needed — both for himself and, when I asked him about it, for the common cause, as in these last months. He was a talented man, a talented businessman.”
Maui County sues utility
HONOLULU — Maui County sued Hawaiian Electric Company on Thursday over the Lahaina fires, saying the utility negligently failed to shut off power despite exceptionally high winds and dry conditions.
Retired cop traveled from Ohio to open fire at wife, others, in Calif. bar
TRABUCO CANYON, Calif. — The retired police sergeant who opened fire in a popular Southern California biker bar had traveled from Ohio to confront his estranged wife, shooting her in the face before turning his gun on the crowd, authorities said.
John Snowling killed three people and wounded six others, Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes said Thursday. Snowling was fatally shot by deputies within minutes.
“Once he started shooting, it was very indiscriminate,” band member Mark Johnson said.