LONDON, 5 (Reuters) – British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday it was increasingly likely a bomb brought down a Russian airliner over Egypt with the loss of 224 lives, and U.S. President Barack Obama said Washington was taking that possibility “very seriously”.
But Moscow, which launched air strikes against Islamist fighters including Islamic State in Syria more than a month ago, said it was premature to reach conclusions that the flight was attacked.
In a telephone call, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Cameron it was important that assessments of the cause of the crash last Saturday be based on information from the official investigation, Interfax news agency reported.
Egypt, which depends on tourism as a crucial source of revenue, said there was no evidence a bomb was to blame.
A Sinai-based group affiliated with Islamic State, the militant group that has seized swathes of Iraq and Syria, has claimed responsibility for the crash, which if confirmed would make it the first attack on civil aviation by the world’s most violent jihadist organisation.
Cameron, who hosted Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi yesterday for a previously scheduled visit, said: “We cannot be certain that the Russian airliner was brought down by a terrorist bomb, but it looks increasingly likely that that was the case.”
His foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, said it was “a significant possibility” that Islamic State was responsible, given a range of information, including the claim of responsibility.
In his first public comments on the disaster, Obama said in a radio interview: “There’s a possibility that there was a bomb on board. And we’re taking that very seriously.”
“We’re going to spend a lot of time just making sure our own investigators and own intelligence community find out what’s going on before we make any definitive pronouncements. But it’s certainly possible that there was a bomb on board,” Obama told KIRO/CBS News Radio in Seattle.
Britain, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands have suspended flights to and from Sharm al-Sheikh, leaving thousands of European tourists stranded in the Red Sea resort where the plane took off. A spokesperson for Cameron said later that flights from the resort destination to Britain would resume on Friday.
Cairo said the decision to suspend flights was unjustified and should be reversed immediately.
Britain said it was working with airlines and Egyptian authorities to put in place additional security and screening measures at the airport to allow Britons to get home.
If a bomb brought down the Airbus A321, that would devastate Egypt’s tourism industry, still recovering from years of political turmoil. Shares in holiday companies Thomas Cook and TUI Group fell.
ABC News, citing government and aviation officials, said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was expected to call for tighter security, possibly as soon as Friday, at certain foreign airports that have direct flights to the United States. DHS said it had no announcements to make for now.
DOOMED FLIGHT
While Egypt has bristled at the suspensions of flights, Sisi said during his visit to London that he understood concerns about safety. He said Cairo had been asked 10 months ago to check security at the airport in Sharm al-Sheikh.
