U.S. Officials Believe ISIS Planted Bomb On
Russian Plane
By Barbara Starr
But the official
stressed a formal conclusion has not been reached by the U.S.
intelligence community.
"There is a definite
feeling it was an explosive device planted in luggage or somewhere
on the plane," the official, who is familiar with the latest U.S.
intelligence analysis of the crash, told CNN.
Other U.S. officials
also told CNN that the analysis is pointing toward the cause being a
bomb.
Based on the same
intelligence, the U.S. belief is that ISIS or an ISIS-affiliated
group is responsible for the attack, the official said.
Russian Plane 'May Well Have Been Brought Down
By An Explosive Device'
There are 15,000 Brits in Sharm El-Sheikh who may have to be
evacuated after disaster over Sinai which killed 224 people
By Isabelle Fraser, with Raf Sanchez, Magdy Samaan, and Roland
Oliphant
November 04, 2015 "Information
Clearing House" - "The
Telegraph" -
No 10 believes Russian plane may have been brought
down by a bomb
All UK flights to and from Sharm el-Sheikh cancelled
Isil-affiliated group releases new message claiming
responsibility
Bodies of those killed did not have explosive residue on them
Egyptian doctor claims one in five of the corpses had been
badly burned
Crew did not have time to send a distress signal, reports
suggest
Cause of crash was an "explosion"
Reuters is reporting that a source close to the
Egyptian investigation of the black boxes has said that the
cause of the crash is looking more like an explosion - but it is
unclear if it was caused by fuel or a bomb.
They also said that investigators are studying
sand from the plane crash site for signs of a bomb attack
Additionally, a judiciary source in the investigation team told
Al Masry Alyoum, an Egyptian newspaper, that "the cause of the
crash is an explosion at the engine. The reason of the explosion
will be determined on the examination of the crash site and the
test of the bodies."
He added that the investigation did not so far
indicate any terrorism.
Flights to Sharm El-Sheikh cancelled after No 10 says
flight may have been brought down by "explosive device"
The plane which crashed over the Sinai killing
all 224 may have been brought down by a bomb, Downing Street has
said.
All flights to and from Sharm el-Sheikh this
afternoon have been cancelled after Downing Street disclosed it
believes the plane may have been "brought down by an explosive
device".
Downing Street said that the flights have been
delayed and that a team of experts have been dispatched to Egypt
to investigate further.
A Number 10 spokeswoman said: "While the investigation is still
ongoing we cannot say categorically why the Russian jet crashed.
But as more information has come to light we have become
concerned that the plane may well have been brought down by an
explosive device.
"In light of this, and as a precautionary
measure, we have decided that flights due to leave Sharm for the
UK this evening will be delayed.
"That will allow time for a team of UK
aviation experts, currently travelling to Sharm, to make an
assessment of the security arrangements in place at the airport
and to identify whether any further action is required. We
expect this assessment to be completed tonight."
Prime Minister David Cameron will chair a
meeting of the Cobra emergency committee on the issue later.
Isil-affiliated group releases new message
claiming responsibility
Syria analysts have shared an audio message
on social media which is believed to be a message from
Wilayat Sinai, an affiliate of Isil based in Sinai.
The message, thought to be the voice of
Abu Osama Al-Masri, confirms the claim of responsibility
that was made on Saturday, saying "we downed it so die in
your rage".
"We are under no obligation to explain how
it came down," the voice says.
"Bring the wreckage and search it, bring
your black boxes and analyse them, and tell us the results
of your investigation."
It added: "Prove that we didn't bring it
down, and how it came down. We will detail how it came down
at the time of our choosing."
It also says that the group will release
proof for their claim in their own time.
The group claimed that the plane was
brought down on the 17th day of the month of Muharram in the
Muslim lunar calendar, the first anniversary of the Egyptian
affiliate's pledge of allegiance to IS.
Egyptian doctor: many bodies seriously charred,
requiring DNA samples to identify
Raf Sanchez,
our correspondent in Cairo, writes:
The Egyptian doctor sounded exhausted
after days of dealing with the dead of the Metrojet crash.
He had been stationed at Cairo's main
morgue and had involved in examining about half of the 224
bodies from the disaster.
Around 25 of the bodies he looked at had
suffered serious burns, to the point where they were seriously
charred and would require DNA samples to identify.
The doctor, who asked not to be named while
discussing the issue, said most of the burns were ante-mortem
i.e. had been suffered before death.
He said there was no way to know exactly
what had caused the fire but that it appeared there must have
been serious flames inside the cabin as the plane broke up. Such
a fire could have been caused by a bomb but equally could be the
result of an engine fire or the eruption of a fuel tank, he
said.
Black box analysis suggests engine explosion
Our correspondent Roland Oliphant,
in St Petersburg, writes:
The plane may have crashed after an
engine malfunction sent components slamming into the side of the
fuselage, Egyptian press have reported.
Al-Masri al-Yaum, an Egyptian newspaper,
cited an unnamed member of the commission investigating the
crash saying that black box analysis suggested a explosion had
occurred in one of the engines.
The presence of a powerful explosion,
simultaneous loss of all engine power, a fire in part of the
fuselage and the destruction of part of the plane in the air,
the source said, in comments picked up by Russian media.
"Samples taken from the remains of the
passengers and the aircraft wreckage, will determine if where
there were explosives present or if the blast [in the engine]
was caused by technical failure, the source added.
Analysis delayed as plane's voice recorder damaged
The plane's voice recorder was damaged in the
crash, preventing it from being analysed, according to a
spokesman for the German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident
Investigation.
Investigators are trying again today, and the
spokesman also said that the plane's flight data recorder had
been analysed Tuesday though results had not yet been reported.
