Islamic State militants could have targeted a British passenger plane with homemade explosives, but at the last minute chose instead to attack a Russian plane in revenge for airstrikes in Syria, the extremist group’s magazine suggests. Home Homeland Safety Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, speaking at a hearing, stated there have been 18 ISIS plots directed at the US this yr – together with 1,000 ISIS investigations & 60 associated arrests.
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A yellow Schweppes Gold can, a flavored soda marketed in Egypt, was pictured alongside what appeared to be other bomb components made of plastic and metal, aIthough it is not yet clear if the bomb pictured is of the exact explosive used to take down the jet.
Western governments have said the Airbus A321 operated by Metrojet was likely brought down by a bomb and Moscow confirmed on Tuesday it had reached the same conclusion, but the Egyptian government said it has still not found evidence of criminal action.
And in its forward, it claims to reveal how militants “discovered a way to compromise the security at Sharkm el-Sheikh airport” to bring down the Metrojet airliner on 31 October.
On Wednesday, IS also published a photo of what it said were passports belonging to dead Russians “obtained by the mujahideen”.
An image from Islamic State magazine Dabiq, verified by Storyful.
The magazine claimed jihadists had initially planned to down a plane belonging to the U.S.-led coalition conducting an air campaign against Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria. Egypt says it is still investigating the cause of the crash.
The Russian Federal Security Service said that the plane was downed via a terrorist attack. Putin and French leader Francois Hollande agreed in a phone call to “ensure closer contact and coordination” in their operations in Syria, the Kremlin said, as the Russian strongman ordered his navy to work with French forces in the Mediterranean “as allies”.
“To bring down an airplane, you don’t need to blow it apart, you just need enough to rupture the pressure hull of the aircraft and the air pressure will do the work for you”, former Central Intelligence Agency officer and an worldwide security analyst Bob Ayers told the AP, adding that it would be rather simple to take down a plane with a bomb like the one shown in ISIS’ magazine.
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The Russian government was also offering a $50 million reward for further information leading to the identification of responsible parties.
