UK foreign secretary cites 'possibility' that explosion took place

Evidence now suggests that a bomb planted by the Islamic State militant group is the likely cause of last weekend's crash of a Russian airliner over Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, US and European security sources said on Wednesday.

However, US and European security sources stressed they had reached no final conclusions about the crash.

Islamic State, which controls swaths of Iraq and Syria and is battling the Egyptian army in the Sinai Peninsula, said again on Wednesday it brought down the airplane, adding it would eventually tell the world how it carried out the attack.

Britain and Ireland suspended flights to and from the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where the Airbus A321 took off on Saturday bound for St. Petersburg, Russia, before crashing minutes later, killing all 224 people on board.

"We have concluded that there is a significant possibility that the crash was caused by an explosive device on board the aircraft," British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond on Wednesday said after a meeting of the government's crisis response committee, chaired by Prime Minister David Cameron.

A US official echoed Hammond's response, saying "a bomb is a highly possible scenario".

"It would be something that ISIL would want to do," he added, using an alternate name for the Islamic State (IS) group.

Meanwhile, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is set to hold talks with Cameron in London on Thursday, during his first visit to the United Kingdom since he came to power.

Egypt, a close ally of the United States and the most populous Arab country, dismissed an earlier claim of responsibility by Islamic State on Saturday.

"It is believed to be an explosion, but what kind is not clear. There is an examination of the sand at the crash site to try and determine if it was a bomb," said an Egyptian source who is close to the team investigating the black boxes.

"There are forensic investigations underway at the crash site. That will help determine the cause, to see if traces of explosives are found."

Russian airline Kogalymavia, which operated the plane, has ruled out a technical fault or human error, drawing fire from the head of Russia's aviation authority for a "premature" assessment.

Experts say the fact that debris and bodies were strewed over a wide area points indicated the aircraft disintegrated in midair, meaning the crash was likely caused by either a technical fault or a bomb on board.

A Russian aviation official said the investigation was looking into the possibility of an object that was stowed on board causing the disaster.

"There are two versions now under consideration: something stowed inside (the plane) and a technical fault. But the airplane could not just break apart in the air - there should be some action," Russian the official said.

"A rocket is unlikely as there are no signs of that."

Security experts and investigators have said the plane is unlikely to have been struck from the outside.

A US military satellite picked up a heat flash at the time of the crash that could point to a catastrophic event during the flight, US media reported.

Reuters - AFP