CAIRO (AP) – The Islamic State group has released a photo of a bomb hidden in a soft drink can that it said had brought down a Russian passenger jet over Egypt last month, and it also announced it had killed hostages from Norway and China.
Wednesday’s disclosure of the new violence by the militants came as Russian and French warplanes continued their stepped-up airstrikes against IS targets in Syria. The attacks on civilians in Paris and aboard the Russian jetliner and the killings of hostages have galvanized international determination to confront the extremists. China’s President Xi Jinping said on Thursday that such groups are the “common enemy of mankind.”
The photo of the can and other materials, which has not been corroborated, was released by the group’s English-language online magazine. It showed a can of Schweppes Gold, a soft drink sold in Egypt, and what appeared to be other bomb components next to it.
The Metrojet Airbus 321-200 crashed in the Sinai desert shortly after taking off from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh for St. Petersburg. All 224 people aboard, mostly Russian tourists, were killed.
In the magazine, the group said it “discovered a way to compromise the security at the Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport,” without providing details.