Russian Federation confirms bomb downed its plane over Egypt, vows retribution

The Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS, claimed responsibility and said the attack was in retaliation to Russia’s airstrikes in Syria.

“We will search for them anywhere they might hide”.

The confirmation of the attack – the deadliest against a Russian target since the Beslan school massacre by Islamist rebels from the North Caucasus in 2004 – comes days after a chain of attacks claimed by the Islamic State group killed at least 129 people in Paris. “It must be intensified so that the criminals understand that vengeance is inevitable”, Putin said in a meeting with security officials late on Monday.

“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”. “We can definitely say this was a terrorist act”.

Up until today, Russian officials had been skeptical over speculation on what was behind the Metrojet crash, telling local media that it was premature to conclude that a bomb had been on the plane.

He has also offered a $50 million reward for anyone who will provide information that will lead to the capture of those responsible.

He said Russians would not dry their tears, but would nevertheless find and punish those responsible. “We will find them in any place on Earth and punish them”.

Western governments, particularly those in Britain and the United States, had said they had information pointing to a bomb having brought the plane down, and have said it may have been smuggled aboard the plane in Sharm el-Sheikh, from which the plane took off – possibly with help from an airport employee. “This will stay with us forever but will not stop us finding and punishing the criminals”, he said in comments released Tuesday. The plane was headed to St. Petersburg, where most of the passengers were from.

She said EasyJet had suspended flights to Sharm el-Sheikh through the end of this month, as have all other British airlines.