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November 18, 2015

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Russian jet was downed by bomb

Source: AP | November 18, 2015, Wednesday | Print Edition

A HOMEMADE explosive device brought down a Russian passenger plane over Egypt last month, the head of Russia's FSB security service said yesterday, telling President Vladimir Putin it's now clear the bombing that killed 224 people was a terrorist act.

Putin vowed to hunt down those responsible for the attack, which the Islamic State group claimed to have carried out.

Two United States defense officials said Russia struck Raqqa, the Islamic State group抯 self-declared capital in Syria, with cruise missiles and bombs yesterday.

The FSB offered a US$50 million reward for information leading to the arrest of those responsible, appealing to the "Russian and international communities for cooperation in identifying the terrorists."

The FSB specified that the reward would be paid in dollars.

"According to our experts, a homemade explosive device equivalent to 1 kilogram of TNT went off onboard, which caused the plane to break up in the air, which explains why the fuselage was scattered over such a large territory. I can certainly say that this was a terrorist act,"FSB head Alexander Bortnikov said.

Tests showed the explosives had been produced outside Russia, he said, but gave no further details.

All of the people on board, most of them Russian tourists, were killed when the Metrojet Airbus 321-200 crashed over the Sinai Peninsula on October 31, after taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh. The plane was headed to Saint Petersburg, where most of the passengers were from.

In Cairo, there was no immediate comment on the news from the Egyptian government. State-owned television carried the news from Moscow, but had no official comment either.

Egypt has resisted British and US assertions that an explosive device was the likely cause of the crash.

Later, government officials and the pro-government media shifted their focus away from the cause of the plane crash to speculating on what they called a Western conspiracy against Egypt and the crushing impact of the crash on its tourism industry.

No hiding place
Putin said Russia will be relentless in hunting down those responsible.

"There's no statute of limitations for this. We need to know all their names,?he said. 揥e抮e going to look for them everywhere wherever they are hiding. We will find them in any place on Earth and punish them."

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility in written statements, as well as video and audio messages posted on the Internet following the crash. It said the attack was retaliation for Russia's air campaign against IS and other groups in Syria.

One of the US defense officials said the Russians gave prior notification of their attacks on Raqqa by communicating with the US-led coalition抯 air operations center at al-Udeid air base in Qatar.

Another defense official said that this was in accordance with protocols worked out by US and Russian officials last month.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss non-US military operations, provided no details on targets or the scale or outcome of the Russian attacks.

Putin said that Russia's air campaign in Syria "should not only be continued but should be intensified so that the criminals realize that retribution is inevitable."

He told the Defense Ministry and General Staff to present their suggestions on how the operation in Syria can be modified.

Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the order didn't mean Russia was considering sending ground troops to Syria.

Putin's meeting with Bortnikov and other senior officials was held shortly after the president returned from meetings with other world leaders in Turkey. The leaders from the G20 nations had vowed to work together to combat the Islamic State group.

"In this work, including the search to find and punish the criminals, we are relying on all of our friends,"Putin said.

"We will act in accordance with the UN Charter's Article 51, which gives each country the right to self-defense. Everyone who tries to aid the criminals should understand that they will be responsible for giving them shelter,"he said.

Putin was unusually somber. After Bortnikov pronounced it a terrorist act, Putin asked the other officials around the table to stand for a moment of silence.

IS, which claimed responsibility for Friday's attacks in Paris that killed at least 129 people, has warned Putin that it will also target him "at home,"though it has not offered details to back its claim.
 

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