The Islamic State group
has released a photo of the bomb it says was used to bring down a Russian
passenger plane in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula last month, killing all 224 people
on board.
The picture was
published in the latest issue of the extremist group's English-language
magazine, with the caption "EXCLUSIVE - Image of the IED used to bring
down the Russian airliner."
The picture showed a
yellow can of Schweppes Gold, a flavored soda marketed in Egypt, and what
appeared to be other bomb components made of plastic and metal. The group also
published a picture of what it said were passports belonging to people who died
in the plane crash.
The photos could not be
independently verified.
The extremist group,
which has a powerful affiliate in the Sinai, had previously claimed to have
downed the plane, which was mainly carrying Russian tourists, without offering
further details. It said the attack was to avenge Russia's air campaign against
the group in Syria.
The group said it
"discovered a way to compromise the security at the Sharm el-Sheikh
International Airport," without providing further details. It said it
initially planned to bring down a plane from one of the countries participating
in the U.S.-led coalition that has been striking it in Syria and Iraq. But it
says it changed the target to a Russian plane after Moscow began launching
airstrikes in Syria in September.
Russia's FSB security
service said Tuesday that a bomb brought down the plane, after Western
officials had earlier expressed similar suspicions. Egyptian authorities have
declined to comment on what caused the Oct. 31 crash, saying a multi-national
investigation is still underway.
Bob Ayers, a former CIA
officer and an international security analyst, said it would be
"easy" to bring down a commercial airliner with a device hidden
inside a soda can like the one the Islamic State group says it used against the
Metrojet flight.
"To bring down an
airplane, you don't need to blow it apart, you just need enough to rupture the
pressure hull of the aircraft and the air pressure will do the work for
you," he said.
He said a can with a
device inside could "blow a really nice hole" in an airplane and was
in some ways an ideal size for an attack.
Ayers said there would
be little in the way of detection devices that could prevent such a device from
being brought onto a plane in cases where a member of the ground crew was
willing to take a bribe.
Suspicions that a bomb
caused the crash have led to flight cancellations to and from Egypt and dealt a
major blow to its vital tourism industry.
The U.K. banned flights
to Sharm el-Sheikh on Nov. 4. Russia banned all flights to Egypt a day later,
and last Friday it banned Egypt's national carrier from flying to Russia.
Earlier Wednesday,
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi told Russian President Vladimir Putin
that Egypt understands the Russian people's pain. Egypt's presidential
spokesman Alaa Yousef confirmed the two leaders spoke by phone Wednesday in a
statement that made no mention of a bombing.
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