Egypt President confirms Russian A321 plane downed in terrorist attack

“Has the confrontation or the terrorism ended?” What was the intention of the person who downed the plane?

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi did not go into specifics in an address broadcast live Wednesday, saying only that he would “remove from the face of the Earth” anyone plotting to bring down the state.

The comments were the first official Egyptian indication that the plane was deliberately downed.

Metrojet flight 9268 was just 23 minutes into its journey to St Petersburg when it crashed on 31 October, killing all 224 passengers and crew on board. Both Russian and Egyptian officials said at the time they didn’t believe those claims to be credible since the plane wasn’t shot down.

The attack dealt a major setback to Sisi, who had been at pains to revive the country’s tourism industry and impose control over the restive Sinai Peninsula.

Terrorist activities killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers since the army ousted former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 in response to mass protests against his one-year rule.

The crash led some states, including Britain and Russian Federation, to suspend their flights to Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh and to evacuate their nationals over security concerns.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, endorsing the FSB’s investigation, vowed to punish the perpetrators of the attack. “We will find them in any part of the world and punish them”, he said.

Tourism had never recovered after an 18-day uprising unseated veteran president Hosni Mubarak in early 2011, setting off months of unrest.

The incident drew criticism about Egypt’s airport security and hit its tourism sector, with a number of European airlines suspending flights to and from the North African country.