U.S. Intelligence: Bomb Likely Brought Down Russian Plane

A Russian jetliner was downed over the weekend by an on-board bomb, possibly placed in luggage by Islamic State extremist, U.S. intelligence officials told CNN.

Sources told the network they had intercepted communications that point to the Islamic State as the culprit. Investigators believe a ‘conventional’ bomb was used, planted somewhere on the plane, and that the extremists took advantage of lax security at the airport to carry out the plan.

The reports come on the heels of Britain and Ireland suspending flights from Sinai, saying concerns about a possible bomb on board led to their decision. The CNN sources say the probe underway points to a bomb in luggage or on someone on the flight.

ISIS has repeatedly taken responsibility for the downing of the Russian jet Saturday, saying an affiliate had taken down the plane, which killed hundreds on board. Those reports were dismissed by multiple countries, including Egypt and Russia, who said ISIS did not have the sophistication to carry out such a terror act.

The statement from the usually cautious British government is the strongest official statement that terrorists may have been responsible for the crash of the Metrojet Airbus Group SE A321. Communications claiming to represent the Islamic State militants that Russia is fighting in Syria released statements saying they downed the jet in retaliation.

“While the investigation is still ongoing we cannot say categorically why the Russian jet crashed,” U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron’s office said in an e-mailed statement on Wednesday. “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.”

The Irish Aviation Authority followed the U.K. government statement by ordering Ireland-based airlines not to fly to the Sharm el-Sheikh or the the Sinai peninsula until further notice, according to a statement. CNN reported Wednesday that there is growing evidence from several nations that Islamic terrorists planted a bomb on the plane.

Other governments — including Russia’s — warned that any conclusions are premature and that a structural failure or other cause could explain how the plane broke into pieces and fell to the desert, killing all 224 aboard. An Egyptian cabinet spokesman referred request for comment to the foreign ministry, where officials couldn’t be reached for comment.

“Only investigators can have theories,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said by text message. “Everyone has guesses and speculation.”

If the Metrojet plane was bombed, it adds that flight to the list of aircraft that were brought down by terrorists and political dissidents using explosive devices. Among the most recent were two Russian passenger jets destroyed by bombs believed to have been taken aboard by Chechen rebels in 2004.

Flight 103 on now-defunct airline Pan Am was blown up over Scotland by a bomb believed to have been placed by Libyan intelligence agents on on Dec. 21, 1988.

Britain isn’t formally a party to the Metrojet probe and the government statement didn’t say whether its actions are based on findings from the crash investigators or an interpretation of information already in the public domain. Egypt said Wednesday that the Airbus’s cockpit-voice recorder was damaged in the crash and that work is required to access its final few minutes. The flight-data device has been decoded and work will begin on that information shortly.

Flights from Sharm el-Sheikh to the U.K. are to be delayed to allow time for aviation security experts to arrive in Egypt and assess the arrangements at the airport. Cameron is to chair a meeting of the government’s emergency COBRA committee later on Wednesday. There were no more flights due to travel to Sharm from the U.K. on Wednesday, the government said.

“The mere fact that the U.K. is willing too state this suggests that London has very strong intelligence indeed,” Richard Gowan, New York-based fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said in an e-mail. “British politicians are very wary about using intelligence speculatively.”

Earlier, Michael McCaul, chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, said he wouldn’t rule out terrorism. He pointed to the Khorasan group, made up of al-Qaeda members operating in Syria, which he said has been developing non-metallic improvised explosive devices that can avoid screening technology.

“One of my concerns about the Russian plane, given the Russian activity now in Syria, is that it possibly could have been one of these non-metallic IEDs,” McCaul said in an interview. “You can’t rule that out at this point in time.”

Revised data covering the Metrojet’s final moments show that it slowed suddenly and then plunged to the Earth at 300 miles (483 kilometers) per hour, according to flight-tracking website FlightRadar24. The plane fell from 31,000 feet to 26,000 feet in the final 26 seconds, according to the final transmissions from its radio transponder.

The data is consistent with reports from Egyptian and Russian officials, who said that the plane came apart as it was flying at cruising altitude from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg. It also indicates that the plane’s direction of travel was wobbling from side to side, which would occur if it was coming apart. In the seconds after that, readings from the plane generated by air pressure begin to become suspicious, according to the company.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the U.S. had no information to share on the investigation, which the Egyptians are leading with Russian involvement. “I don’t want to say anything that would interfere with or prejudice that ongoing investigation,” he told reporters.

None of the big three U.S. carriers — American Airlines Group Inc., United Continental Holdings Inc. and Delta Air Lines Inc.– serves any Egyptian destinations. EgyptAir Airlines Co., the country’s flagship airline, is a member of the Star Alliance, the marketing group led by United and Germany’s Deutsche Lufthansa AG.

“If this is indeed a bombing, it will put Western politicians in a difficult position,” said Gowan, with the European Council on Foreign Relations. “On the one hand, this is exactly what the U.S. and its allies had predicted would happen after Russia went into Syria. They will hope that Moscow will be more flexible over Syria after this.”

But in all likelihood Putin may respond by doubling down militarily and demanding more Western support in a joint war on terror, he said.

Shadi Hamid, senior fellow at the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, the latest reports shifts the narrative of the disaster and represents a propaganda coup for the Islamic State.

“More observers — and now more governments — appear at least open to the possibility that ISIS was involved,” he said, using another name for the Islamic State. “Egypt’s tourism industry is further damaged and the Sinai seems even more unstable than it already was. ”