Head of Russian FSB says 2-pound bomb brought down Metrojet in Sinai
Don Melvin is a newsdesk editor for CNN in London
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By Don Melvin and Matthew Chance, CNN
Updated 4:09 AM ET, Tue November 17, 2015
http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/17/middleeast/russian-metrojet-crash-bomb/index.html#CNN)—The Russian passenger jet that crashed over the Sinai was brought down by a bomb estimated to contain 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of explosives, the head of the Russian Federal Security Service, Aleksandr Bortnikov, said Tuesday, according to Russian state media.
The Russian government had initially resisted the theory that the plane fell victim to terrorism, perhaps in retaliation for Russia's support of the government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
A girl cries during a funeral service for Nina Lushchenko, 60, a victim of the Russian MetroJet Airbus A321 crash, at a church in Veliky Novgorod on November 5, 2015. OLGA MALTSEVA/AFP/Getty Images
Metrojet flight 9268 crashed October 31 after departing from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all 224 people on board.
Bortnikov said the bomb was a homemade device with the explosive power of one kilogram of TNT, the state-run TASS news agency said.
"The Russian Foreign Ministry should appeal to all our partners," Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a press conference in the Kremlin on Tuesday. "We are counting on all our friends in this work, including the search for and punishment of the culprits.
FSB Chief Aleksandr Bortnikov found traces of explosives from a home made explosive device INSIDE the aircraft and accounts for the scattering of the plane's fuselage across
a wide area. Putin said no matter where these terrorist perpetrators are hiding we will find them and punish them severely.