[A Balrog of Morgoth]

The vast amount of experience that Afghanistan rebels had with these types of weapons shooting down very fast and rather high flying Russian aircraft would give me cause to believe a terrorist could do it. Also, a portion of the aircraft that could very well answer the question of whether there was a missile strike or not, has either never been recovered, or has yet to be revealed.

Actually, you've got it a bit backwards. They didn't shoot down high-flying aircraft. The presence of Stingers in the rebels' hands forced the Russians to stay at higher altitudes, which really mattered, since the Russians were primarily using unguided munitions.

[phoenix0468]

Yes, I understand that. The fact remains that Russian aircraft were still being shot down after they changed their approach. Not as many, of course, but there were some. I am not saying this validates the terrorist theory, but it does lend some credit.