Egypt Admits Russian Plane Was Downed by Terrorists

“Has the confrontation and terrorism ended?” Did the person behind the plane crash aim to hit just the [Egyptian] tourism industry?

While he was largely mocked by people for what he said, an eBay user took Sisi’s words for real and created a post on eBay website which read “For sale on eBay, Field Marshal, Doctor of Philosophy with a military background, decent condition, current bid $100,301”. “No, but also to hit relations”.

Sinai Province, a branch of so-called Islamic State (IS), said in a statement on 31 October that it had destroyed the plane in revenge for Russian air strikes in Syria.

Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the former army head who ousted his predecessor Mohammed Morsi, was widely mocked for his pledge as he laid out development plans on Wednesday.

Egyptian Ambassador to Moscow Mohamed al-Badri previously said that Shoukry’s visit to Russian Federation is “planned soon”. The plane fell near El Hasna populated locality 100km to the south of Al-Arish, the administrative center of the North Sinai Governorate (province).

Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to “find and punish” those behind the attack.

“We will search for them anywhere they might hide”.

Almost all those killed were Russian tourists flying to St Petersburg from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

The incident drew criticism about Egypt’s airport security and hit its tourism sector, with a number of European airlines suspending flights to and from the North African country. Revenues from tourism slumped 15 percent year-on-year to $6.1 billion in 2015.

Security forces then shot dead hundreds of Mursi supporters and imprisoned thousands of others in a fierce crackdown.