{"id":14531,"date":"2015-11-18T09:06:23","date_gmt":"2015-11-18T17:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/putin-vows-to-hunt-down-punish-those-who-bombed-russian-jet\/"},"modified":"2015-11-18T09:06:23","modified_gmt":"2015-11-18T17:06:23","slug":"putin-vows-to-hunt-down-punish-those-who-bombed-russian-jet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/putin-vows-to-hunt-down-punish-those-who-bombed-russian-jet\/","title":{"rendered":"Putin vows to hunt down, punish those who bombed Russian jet"},"content":{"rendered":"

MOSCOW \u2014<\/strong> A somber President Vladimir Putin vowed to hunt down and punish those responsible for a bomb that brought down a Russian passenger jet last month, \u201cwherever they are hiding.\u201d Intensified Russian airstrikes Tuesday hit the Islamic State group\u2019s stronghold in Syria that also is being pounded by the French military.<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s FSB security service confirmed for the first time that a homemade bomb caused the Oct. 31 crash of the Metrojet Airbus 321-200 in Egypt\u2019s Sinai Desert and killed all 224 people aboard in what it called \u201ca terrorist act.\u201d The Islamic state had already claimed responsibility, saying it was punishing Moscow for its air campaign in Syria.<\/p>\n

An unusually subdued Putin called it \u201cone of the bloodiest crimes,\u201d and promised retribution for \u201cthe murder of our people in Sinai.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will not wipe away the tears from our souls and our hearts. This will stay with us forever,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The FSB offered a $50 million reward for information leading to the arrest of those responsible, and Putin said Russia would be relentless in its pursuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to look for them everywhere wherever they are hiding. We will find them in any place on Earth and punish them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

FSB head Alexander Bortnikov said a bomb containing the equivalent of 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of TNT went off aboard the Airbus, causing it to break apart in the air, which explains why the fuselage was scattered over such a large territory. I can certainly say that this was \u201ca terrorist act,\u201d Bortnikov said.<\/p>\n

He said tests showed the explosives had been produced outside of Russia, but gave no other details.<\/p>\n

Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said his government was informed only on Tuesday of the results of the Russian investigation, and he shied away from endorsing its conclusion that a bomb was to blame. Speaking in Sharm el-Sheikh following a Cabinet meeting there, Ismail said Egypt would \u201cbear in mind\u201d the Russian conclusion.<\/p>\n

Aviation Minister Hossam Kamal, meanwhile, sought to cast doubt on the Russian declaration, saying the technical investigation into the crash by experts from Egypt, Russia, France and Ireland had not concluded.<\/p>\n

Egyptian authorities opened an investigation into a possible security breach or infiltration by militants of the Sharm el-Sheikh airport staff, security officials said. The investigation has focused on baggage handlers, their security supervisors and also personnel involved in aircraft catering, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.<\/p>\n

Egypt is concerned about the impact on its tourism industry. Sharm el-Sheikh was particularly popular with Russian tourists, who in 2014 accounted for nearly a third of the nearly 10 million visitors to Egypt.<\/p>\n

Russia has suspended all flights to Egypt. Russia also has banned Egypt\u2019s national carrier from flying to Russia.<\/p>\n

Seeking to reassure travelers, Egyptian Interior Minister Magdy Abdel-Ghaffar said security measures at airports had been stepped up nationwide.<\/p>\n

Putin\u2019s meeting at the Kremlin was held immediately upon his return from Monday\u2019s summit with President Barack Obama and other world leaders in Turkey, where they vowed to work together to combat the Islamic State group following Friday\u2019s attacks in Paris that killed 129 people. IS has claimed responsibility for those bombings and shootings.<\/p>\n

Putin ordered the Russian missile cruiser Moskva, currently in the Mediterranean, to start cooperating with the French military \u201cas allies\u201d on operations in Syria. He said a French aircraft carrier task force was to approach the Moskva soon.<\/p>\n

The plane crash and the Paris attacks clearly have raised Russia\u2019s determination to fight IS, although Western concerns remain that its airstrikes also are hitting rebels who oppose Syrian President Bashar Assad but are not affiliated with radical groups.<\/p>\n

Putin said that Russia\u2019s air campaign in Syria \u201cshould not only be continued but should be intensified so that the criminals realize that retribution is inevitable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Russian bombers hit positions in the Islamic State\u2019s stronghold of Raqqa, as well as in Deir al-Zour.<\/p>\n

Russian warplanes fired cruise missiles on militant positions in Syria\u2019s Idlib and Aleppo provinces, Shoigu said. The Islamic State group has positions in Aleppo province, while the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front is in Idlib province.<\/p>\n

The cruise missiles that hit the Aleppo and Idlib positions were fired from supersonic Tu-160 bombers and from Tu-95s, long-distance turboprop strategic bombers that started from Russian territory, he added.<\/p>\n

France\u2019s airstrikes Tuesday in Raqqa destroyed a command post and training camp, said French military spokesman Col. Gilles Jaron. Later, Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said there were new raids in the evening by 10 fighter jets. The aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle will depart Toulon on Thursday for the region.<\/p>\n

French President Francois Hollande, who stayed away from the G-20 summit because of the Paris attacks, said he would travel to Moscow next week to help forge a military coalition against the Islamic State group.<\/p>\n

France also made an unprecedented demand that its European Union allies support its military action against IS. It invoked a never-used article of the EU\u2019s Lisbon Treaty obliging members of the 28-nation bloc to give \u201caid and assistance by all the means in their power\u201d to a member country that is \u201cthe victim of armed aggression on its territory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Le Drian said all EU partners responded positively, and they could help \u201ceither by taking part in France\u2019s operations in Syria or Iraq, or by easing the load or providing support for France in other operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was asked by reporters if Putin\u2019s order about the Moskva cooperating with the French meant there was a de facto coalition on Syria involving Moscow and Paris. He replied: \u201cFor now, it\u2019s premature to say this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Putin said Russia is \u201crelying on all of our friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will act in accordance with the U.N. Charter\u2019s Article 51, which gives each country the right to self-defense. Everyone who tries to aid the criminals should understand that they will be responsible for giving them shelter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

An image posted on the Facebook page of Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova apparently sought to show solidarity between Russia and France. Similar to the popular meme of the Eiffel Tower inside a circle forming a peace symbol on the French tricolor, the image on Zakharova\u2019s page shows a jet plane in a circle superimposed on the white, blue and red of the Russian flag.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writers Nataliya Vasilyeva and Jim Heintz in Moscow, Thomas Adamson in Paris and Hamza Hendawi in Cairo contributed to this story.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

A previous version of this story has been corrected to show that the spelling of the Egyptian city is Sharm el-Sheikh, not Sharm al-Sheikh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MOSCOW \u2014 A somber President Vladimir Putin vowed to hunt down and punish those responsible for a bomb that brought down a Russian passenger jet last month, \u201cwherever they are hiding.\u201d Intensified Russian airstrikes Tuesday hit the Islamic State group\u2019s stronghold in Syria that also is being pounded by the French military. Russia\u2019s FSB security […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":14532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-14531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14531"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=14531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}