Islamic
State affiliate in Egypt insists it brought down Russian plane
Send a link to a friend
[November 04, 2015]
CAIRO (Reuters) - Islamic State's
Egyptian affiliate dismissed in an audio message on Wednesday doubts
that it had downed a Russian passenger plane over Egypt's Sinai
Peninsula, killing all aboard, and said it would tell the world how did
so in its own time.
|
The Russian-operated Airbus A321M crashed on Saturday shortly
after taking off from the Red Sea resort of Sharm al-Sheikh on its
way to St Petersburg, killing all 224 people on board.
Sinai Province, an Egyptian group loyal to Islamic State, said in a
statement the same day that it had brought down the airliner "in
response to Russian airstrikes that killed hundreds of Muslims on
Syrian land".
The claim was dismissed by Russian and Egyptian officials. Security
experts and investigators have said the plane is unlikely to have
been struck from the outside and Sinai-based militants are not
believed to possess the technology to shoot down a jet from a
cruising altitude above 30,000 feet.
Russian officials have, however, said the plane probably broke up in
the air, leaving open the prospect of some kind of explosion on
board.
In an audio message posted on a Twitter account used by the group,
Islamic State's Egyptian affiliate insisted it was behind the crash.
The claim could not immediately be authenticated.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Nov/04/images/ads/current/Dennis_Stoll_daily_sda_021114.png) "We say to the deniers and the doubters: Die from your frustration.
We, with God's grace, are the ones who brought it down, and we are
not obliged to disclose the mechanism of its demise," the speaker
said.
"So go to the wreckage, search, bring your black boxes and analyze,
give us the summary of your research and the product of your
expertise and prove that we did not bring it down or how it came
down," he said in Arabic.
"We will disclose the mechanism of its demise at the time that we
want and in the way that we want."
Russia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, launched air
raids against opposition groups in Syria including Islamic State on
Sept. 30.
[to top of second column] |
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Nov/04/images/ads/current/agland_fullpage_071714.png)
The hardline group has called for war against both Russia and the
United States in response to their air strikes in Syria.
Islamic State backers in Iraq issued a video on Tuesday
congratulating their Egyptian colleagues and warning Russian
President Vladimir Putin that more was to come. They handed out
sweets to celebrate the crash.
Sinai-based militants have killed hundreds of Egyptian soldiers and
police in recent years and have also attacked Western targets. Egypt
has carried out air strikes on them.
Islamic State websites have in the past claimed responsibility for
actions that have not been conclusively attributed to them.
Officials say there is no evidence to suggest so far that a bomb
brought down the plane.
Egypt has said it was too early to draw any conclusions about what
had caused the crash as inquiries had just begun.
(Reporting by Lin Noueihed and Omar Fahmy; Editing by Michael Georgy
and Raissa Kasolowsky)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Nov/04/images/ads/current/LINCOLN_theater_011411.png) |