Evidence now indicates that a bomb planted by members of the Islamic State is the most likely cause of the crash of the Russian plane over Sinai in Egypt, US and European security sources said.
The plane of the Russian airline "Kogalimaviya", on a flight from Sharm el-Sheikh to Saint Petersburg, crashed on Saturday, October 31, 23 minutes after takeoff, about 100 kilometers from Arish in North Sinai.
Officials emphasize that they have not reached final conclusions about the crash of the Russian plane in which all 224 passengers and crew members died, reported Reuters.
The Egyptian branch of the Islamic State, which controls parts of Iraq and Syria and is fighting the Egyptian army in Sinai, rejected in a new audio message any doubt that it was responsible for the downing of the Russian passenger plane.
The jihadists have announced that they will tell the world how they shot down the plane when they think the time has come.
Great Britain said it was possible that an explosive device caused the plane to crash, but did not say who might be responsible.
"We have concluded that there is a significant possibility that the plane crashed due to an explosive device," British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said after a meeting of the government's crisis situation committee, chaired by Prime Minister David Cameron.
Cameron said today that it is "more likely than not" that the crash of a Russian passenger plane in Egypt was caused by a bomb.
"British officials are not yet sure that the plane was blown up by a bomb, but there is a "high possibility" of that," Cameron said outside his residence at 10 Downing Street, AP reported.
Cameron announced that he would call Russian President Vladimir Putin later in the day to discuss the plane crash.
The UK grounded all flights to and from the Sinai Peninsula on Wednesday, affecting thousands of British tourists.
The British Prime Minister said that he "sympathizes in every way" with the Egyptians, who rely heavily on tourism, but he had to "put the safety of British citizens first."
Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abuzeid said Britain's decision to suspend flights to Sharm el-Sheikh was made unilaterally without consulting Cairo.
In the statement, Abuzeid stated that Egypt and Britain had talks at the highest level before making this decision.
Egypt reacted positively to the concerns of the British and strengthened security measures at the airport, Abuzeid said, adding that this does not mean that the Egyptian authorities believe that poor security is the cause of the plane crash.
Egypt, a close US ally, put forward a similar theory.
"It is believed to have been an explosion, but it is not yet known what kind. Samples of sand taken from the crash site are being tested to determine if it was a bomb," said an unnamed Egyptian source close to the team investigating the contents. black boxes.
Medvedev: It is too early to draw conclusions
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said at a cabinet meeting that it is too early to draw any conclusions about the cause of the crash of the Russian plane in Egypt.
He, however, ordered the implementation of additional security measures, Reuters reported.
"The Kremlin believes that presenting different theories about the cause of the plane crash is speculation and that only an official investigation can determine what happened," said Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Peskov's statement came as a reaction to British Foreign Minister Philip Hammond's statement that there is a strong possibility that a group linked to the extremist Islamic State (IS) is behind the bombing of the plane of the Russian airline "Kogalimaviya".
When asked if he thought IS extremists were behind the tragedy, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said that IS Sinai claimed responsibility for the downing of the Russian plane.
"We looked at the whole situation, including that allegation, but of course other information, and concluded that there was a significant possibility (that it was)," Hammond told Sky television earlier today.
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