Islamic State’s magazine shows photo of ‘bomb’ that downed Russian plane

Cairo: The Islamic State terrorist group on Wednesday released a photo of an improvised bomb that was allegedly used to down a Russian airliner last month.

The photo, which was released in a latest version of the group's English-language magazine, Dabaq, showed an improvised explosive device made from three parts: a soda can, something of a detonator and a remoter.

Also included in the magazine were pictures of purported passports that the IS said were obtained from Russian victims, with the debris of the downed Russian plane as the background.

The group said in the magazine that the original plan was to bring down a plane that belongs to the Western anti-IS coalition led by the US, but after Russia started directly bombing IS targets in September, their target changed.

"After having discovered a way to compromise the security at the Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport and resolving to bring down a plane belonging to a nation in the American-led Western coalition against the Islamic State, the target was changed to a Russian plane," the group said.

"A bomb was smuggled onto the airplane," it added.

Just one day before the IS released those photos, Russia confirmed on Tuesday that a bomb caused the Russian airliner crash after taking off on October 31 from Egypt's Red Sea resort Sharm el-Sheikh, in the Sinai peninsula.

All 224 people on board were killed.

Moscow has said it had seen those pictures released by the IS and was still investigating.

Egypt said on Tuesday that it would consider the Russian findings on the plane crash, but an Egypt-led probe team has yet determined the cause.

(IANS)