Russian intelligence service said that a Metrojet airliner that went down over Sinai Peninsula last month was brought down by a bomb.
After weeks of speculation, the Russian Security Service (FSB) said that the traces of explosives were found among the debris. The jet, carrying most of the Russian tourists’ back home, shattered mid-air minutes after taking off from the Red Sea resort of Sharm al-Sheikh on 31st of October.
“We can definitely say this was a terrorist attack,” said Bortnikov, adding that 1 kg of a TNT equivalent was used to blow up the Airbus A321 travelling from Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg in Russia. Mr. Borknikov personally delivered the investigators final report to the Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said that those behind the attack would be held responsible.
“We will search for them anywhere they might hide. We will find them in any part of the world and punish them,” said Vladimir Putin.
Initially Sinai plane crash was believed to be a result of technical fault. But hours later, the Islamic State in Egypt’s Sinai province claimed the responsibility of the attack, which killed all 224 people on board. The jihadist group released a statement that it had destroyed the plane because of Russian airstrikes in Syria.
Russia’s President Putin said that the airstrikes in Syria “must not only be continued – they must be intensified so that the criminals understand that retribution is inevitable.”
The recent Islamist attack on the tourism industry is deeply damaging to the struggling economy of the Middle Eastern nation. Egypt’s President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has been dragged under intense pressure due to the security lapse in the airport.
After the crash, President Sisi claimed to have full control over Sinai. The wreckage of Flight 9268 is proof of Sisi’s vulnerability and the growing strength of the extremists in the Arab world’s most populous nation. IMAGE/EPA
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