Russian plane crash: U.S. intel suggests ISIS bomb brought down jet
Story highlights
- Official: "There is intelligence suggesting an assist from someone at the airport"
- U.S. official says intelligence suggests a bomb was planted on the Russian plane
- Flights from Sharm el-Sheikh heading to the United Kingdom and Ireland are delayed
(CNN)Days
after authorities dismissed claims that ISIS brought down a Russian
passenger jet, a U.S. intelligence analysis now suggests that the terror
group or its affiliates planted a bomb on the plane.
British
Foreign Minister Philip Hammond said his government believes there is a
"significant possibility" that an explosive device caused the crash.
And a Middle East source briefed on intelligence matters also said it
appears likely someone placed a bomb aboard the aircraft.
Metrojet Flight 9268 crashed Saturday in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula after breaking apart in midair, killing all 224 people on board. It was en route to St. Petersburg from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
The
latest U.S. intelligence suggests that the plane crash was most likely
caused by a bomb on the plane planted by ISIS or an affiliate, according
to a U.S. official familiar with the matter.
"There
is a definite feeling it was an explosive device planted in luggage or
somewhere on the plane," the official said, stressing that no formal
conclusion had been reached by the U.S. intelligence community.
The
assessment was reached, the official said, by looking back at
intelligence reports that had been gathered before Saturday's plane
crash and intelligence gathered since then. The United States did not
have credible or verified intelligence of a specific threat before the
crash. However, the official said, "there had been additional activity
in Sinai that had caught our attention."
Egyptian
authorities haven't publicly responded to reports on U.S. intelligence.
Since the crash, they've downplayed the possibility that terrorism
could be involved.
Egypt: 'Premature' to draw conclusion about plane crash 01:53
Additional
intelligence supports the theory that someone at the Sharm el-Sheikh
airport helped get a bomb onto the plane, another U.S. official said.
"This
airport has lax security. It is known for that," the official said.
"But there is intelligence suggesting an assist from someone at the
airport. "
The intelligence regarding
ISIS involvement, another U.S. official said, is partially based on
monitoring of internal messages of the terrorist group. Those messages
are separate from public ISIS claims of responsibility, that official
said.
In an audio message from ISIS'
Sinai branch that was posted on terror-related social media accounts
Wednesday, the organization adamantly insisted that it brought down the
flight.
"Find your black boxes and
analyze them, give us the results of your investigation and the depth of
your expertise and prove we didn't do it or how it was downed," the
message said. "Die with your rage. We are the ones with God's blessing
who brought it down. And God willing, one day we will reveal how, at the
time we desire."
Typically, ISIS is
quick to trumpet how and who carried out any attacks for purposes of
praise and propaganda. To some, the fact they haven't in this case
raises doubts about their claim.
"That
was a very baffling way to claim credit for what would be the most
significant terrorist attack since 9/11," CNN terrorism analyst Paul
Cruickshank said. "But there may have been a method behind this and a
reason behind this, and that may have been to protect an insider at
Sharm el-Sheikh airport."
Britain, Ireland suspend flights from Egyptian resort city
News
of the U.S. intelligence analysis comes hours after British Prime
Minister David Cameron's office said a bomb might have caused the crash.
"While
the investigation is still ongoing, we cannot say categorically why the
Russian jet crashed," the Prime Minister's office said. "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."
U.K. uses strong language suggesting bomb was on plane 02:53
Flights
due to leave Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, for the United Kingdom were being
delayed his office said, as a precautionary measure to allow British
aviation experts to assess security arrangements at the city's airport,
Cameron's office said in its statement.
Ireland
also said Wednesday that it was suspending all flights to and from
Sharm el-Sheikh until further notice, according to a statement from the
Irish Aviation Authority.
Egyptian
Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry called the British decision to suspend
flights "somewhat premature," as the investigation is not complete.
"We
can appreciate, of course, the sense of responsibility and desire to
provide protection to UK citizens. This is a desire that we equally
share," he told CNN shortly after the British government's announcement.
"But I think it is somewhat premature to make declarations related to
what might or might not have happened to the aircraft before the
investigation is completed and before there is a definitive cause for
this crash."
At the airport on Wednesday, tensions quickly boiled over, one British tourist told CNN.
"People
have been shouting at officials," said Sarah Cotterill, who was
supposed to fly out of Sharm el-Sheikh Wednesday evening with her sister
and their five children.
British embassy officials had just arrived at the airport terminal and put the passengers onto buses, she said.
"We
are going to stay in a hotel in Sharm el-Sheikh. I don't know where. We
don't know anything," she said. "The situation is hectic."
Militant battleground
Sharm
el-Sheikh, where Flight 9268 began its journey, is a beach resort
dotted with palm trees at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. The
plane crashed about 300 kilometers (185 miles) farther north, near a
town called Housna, according to Egyptian authorities.
Sinai has been a battleground between ISIS-affiliated militants and Egyptian security forces in recent years. Hundreds have died in the fighting.
The
militants have repeatedly claimed responsibility for bringing down the
Russian passenger jet, but officials in Egypt and Russia have disputed
that claim, saying there's no evidence to support it.
The
U.S. State Department designated the ISIS Sinai affiliate, originally
known as Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, as a foreign terrorist organization in
April 2014. ISIS in Sinai is one of the most active of all the ISIS
affiliates and has bomb-making capabilities, according to U.S.
intelligence. But if the group did plant a bomb on the plane, it would
represent an increase in sophistication.
The
officials say ISIS has not proved to be nearly as advanced with
bomb-making capabilities as al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a group
that U.S. national security officials believed were working on
nonmetallic bombs to be smuggled onto planes.
"If
ISIS really was responsible for this, this will turbocharge their
popularity in the global jihadi movement," Cruickshank said.
Egypt's
Interior Ministry said Tuesday that it wasn't stepping up security in
Sharm el-Sheikh or at the resort city's airport "because there is no
indication (the plane crash) was a terrorist operation."
But the U.S. Embassy in Cairo has sent a security message to its employees, instructing them not to travel anywhere in Sinai pending the outcome of the crash investigation.
State
Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters Wednesday that the move
had nothing to do with any conclusion about why the plane crashed.
State Department grilled over Russian plane crash 02:54
"They
did the prudent thing. They do what our posts do around the world every
time when there is some security concern -- even when, especially when,
we don't know why something happened," he said. "That's even more
reason to restrict movement. You don't want people going into harm's
way."
Russia vs. ISIS
Russia started launching airstrikes in Syria in September, saying it was coordinating with the country's government to target ISIS and other terrorists.
When
news of the crash first broke, an ISIS-affiliated group known as
Province of Sinai released a statement claiming responsibility for the
crash, saying it had perpetrated the attack "in response to Russian
airstrikes that killed hundreds of Muslims on Syrian land," according to Reuters. That claim was disputed by officials, who said ISIS couldn't have fired a missile to bring down the plane.
U.S.
officials initially said they doubted Russia's claims that it was
targeting ISIS in Syria. But Col. Steve Warren, a spokesman for the U.S.
military's Operation Inherent Resolve targeting ISIS in Syria and Iraq,
said on Wednesday that some Russian airstrikes were hitting ISIS
targets in Syria.
"They've done
hundreds of airstrikes at this point. I'm not putting out the count
anymore, but they conduct airstrikes, but only a fraction of them have
been against (ISIS) targets. And when I say fraction, I'm talking ...
10%," he said.
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