Islamic State jihadists have said they attacked the plane – the deadliest assault on a Russian target since the Beslan school massacre by Islamist rebels from the North Caucasus in 2004 – just days ahead of a wave of killings in Paris. The Russian investigation was being carried out in parallel, but clearly not in coordiantion with an Egypt-led worldwide investigation, which includes Russian representatives.
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The ISIS attacks have brought a softening in relations between President Putin, right, and western governments which imposed sanctions on Russian Federation over the civil war in Ukraine.
The group’s PAC has spent hundreds of thousands creating print and online ads for the Vermont senator. Islamic State had previously claimed responsibility for the attack, still provided no proof.
“Communications between the pilot and the tower were very normal – no distress signals occurred”, Egyptian transportation minister Hossam Kamal said in a press conference following the incident, according to the NY Times.
All 224 passengers and crew – mainly Russians – were killed, with officials saying wreckage and bodies were strewn across a 12 square mile area.
The airliner was heading from the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh to Russia’s second largest city, St Petersburg, when it exploded in mid-air about 20 minutes after take-off on October 31.
“Traces of foreign-made explosive had been found on fragments of the downed plane and on passengers’ personal belongings”, Alexander Bortnikov, the head of Russia’s FSB security service, has said, pointing out “the bomb probably contained around 1 kilogram of TNT”.
An accompanying text in the English-language magazine, Dabiq, states that the decision to target the Russian jet came “after having discovered a way to compromise the security at the Sharm el-Sheikh worldwide Airport and resolving to bring down a plane belonging to a nation in the American-led Western coalition against the Islamic State”. US officials say there is a growing body of evidence that this is most likely the case.
Authorities have yet to confirm whether the Islamic State’s soda can explosive is what actually brought down the airliner.
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The Russian government is offering a $50 million reward for information about those who brought down the plane.
