U.S. officials: Russian crash likely due to ISIS bomb

U.S. officials say they are growing increasingly convinced that the crash of a Russian aircraft in Egypt was the result of a bomb, as investigators collect evidence from what one lawmaker called “a 9/11” event for Russia.

Signs point to a bomb planted by a supporter of the Islamic State militant group as the cause of the crash last week, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said Sunday. McCaul was one several senior lawmakers on committees related to national security who made that case Sunday.

Evidence collected from the aircraft’s “black box” data recorder, as well as information from satellite surveillance of the region, showed a burst of heat just before the plane lost altitude, he said.

“All indicators are pointing to the fact that it was ISIS putting a bomb on an airplane,” McCaul said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“I have a high degree of confidence. It’s been my gut all along,” McCaul added. “This is comparable to 9/11 for” Russia, he said. The crash of the Russian airliner killed at 224 aboard.

Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has threatened retaliation against Russia since Moscow began bombing militias in Syria who are fighting against the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, who is an ally of Russia’s.

Over the weekend, an Egyptian official confirmed that the plane’s cabin recorder captured a strange noise before the jet plunged from the skies. French sources familiar with the investigation described the sound on the cabin recorder as a violent and sudden explosion, echoing earlier speculation by British intelligence sources.

Despite growing speculation that a bomb may have exploded on the flight, though, the Egyptian head of the panel investigating the crash said Saturday it was too early to say for certain. Egypt risks losing vitally important tourist revenue if security concerns stop people from flying to its Red Sea resort at Sharm el Sheik. Russians and Britons make up a large share of the tourist traffic.

Reps. Peter King, R-N.Y., and Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, said in a joint interview on ABC’s “This Week” that they are close to reaching the conclusion that a bomb caused the crash, as well as on the need for more security precautions at airports in the region.

King said he was “almost ready to conclude that it was ISIS, that it was either ISIS or an ISIS affiliate,” adding that the assessment represents “the general consensus among people I’ve spoken to in the intelligence community.”

Schiff, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he shares King’s assessment of the evidence and thinks that ISIS “may have concluded that the best way to defeat airport defenses is not to go through them but to go around them with the help of somebody on the inside.”

If that’s the case, he said, “I think there are probably at least a dozen airports in the region and beyond that are vulnerable to the same kind of approach, which is exactly why we have to harden those defenses.”

Their assessments move beyond President Barack Obama’s statement late in the week that there was a “possibility” that a bomb was to blame for bringing down the Russian Metrojet that broke up over the Sinai Peninsula.

Obama plans to travel to Turkey this week for a meeting of the Group of 20, the heads of government of major developed nations.

Even if Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn’t show up for the G-20 meeting, the government leaders will be focused on the conflict in Syria and the problems emanating from it.

Parsons reported from Washington and Hassan from Sharm El Sheik, Egypt.

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