Russian Federation pounded Islamic State targets in Syria after confirming that a bomb attack brought down its passenger jet over Egypt last month, killing all 224 people on board.
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The group also published a picture of what it said were passports belonging to people who died in the plane crash.
Another shocking disclosure which the Islamic Sate made was it originally meant to target a plane “belonging to a nation in the American-led Western coalition against Isis”, however the idea was later dropped.
ISIS said it had exploited a security loophole at Sharm al- Sheikh airport, where the Airbus 321 originated, in order to smuggle a bomb on board.
It said the attacks were in retaliation of the French air strikes in Syria which began past year.
A spokesman for Polish national carrier LOT said the aircraft did not belong to the airline but was a charter, destined for the Egyptian city of Hurghada. Since then, ISIS published images of the bomb that was detonated inside the airplane, saying that the Russian flight wasn’t the original target.
But later changed plans and targeted Russian plane which was departing the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
“Ever since the Chinese citizen was held hostage by the Islamic State group, the Chinese government has been sparing no effort in rescuing him”, ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a statement, according to the AP.
Egypt said on Tuesday that it would consider the Russian findings on the plane crash, but an Egypt-led probe team has yet determined the cause.
Egypt is battling an Islamist insurgency in the Sinai, a strategic peninsula bordering Israel, Gaza and the Suez Canal. Moscow had intensified its bombing campaign in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on 30 September, with Syrian forces facing a tough battle from rebel groups and IS militants. “We will find them in any place on Earth and punish them”.
Before the image emerged Alexander Bortnikov, the head of the FSB, had told Russian President Vladimir Putin that the device responsible was relatively small – equivalent to about 1 kilogram of TNT.
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Egypt is still maintaining there are no problems with its security procedures and that it has reached no conclusion about what brought the plane down.
