On Wednesday morning, Agence France-Presse and other news outlets reported that an ISIS-affiliated magazine, Dabiq, has published a photo of a bomb. The ISIS publication claims the photo shows the bomb that reportedly downed Metrojet Flight 9268. The magazine's claim comes after Russia confirmed Tuesday that a bomb was responsible for the plane's crash on Oct. 31. The so-called bomb in the photo appears to be a Schweppes soda can.
The Russian plane exploded and crashed in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people who were on board. The plane was traveling from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg. Not long after the tragedy occurred, ISIS claimed responsibility, saying the Airbus A321's crash was an act of retaliation against Russia for hosting airstrikes in Syria.
In his announcement Tuesday, confirming that a homemade bomb downed Metrojet Flight 9268, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the plane crash a "terrorist act." Putin vowed to search for those responsible for the crash, "no matter where they are hiding," adding that Russia will "find them in any place on the planet and will punish them." Putin also said that Russia will continue carrying out air strikes in Syria, to continue fighting ISIS as well as rebel groups in the country. "Our military work in Syria must not only be continued, but strengthened so that criminals understand that punishment is inevitable," Putin said on Tuesday.
Dabiq, which is published in English, wrote alongside the photo that the bomb was devised after Russia began airstrikes in September. According to The Daily Beast, this is the ISIS propaganda magazine's text that ran with the photo:
On '30 September 2015,' after years of supporting the Nusayrī tāghūt in the war against the Muslims of Shām, Russia decided to participate directly with its own air force in the war. And so, after having discovered a way to compromise the security at the Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport and resolving to bring down a plane belonging to a nation in the American-led Western coalition against the Islamic State, the target was changed to a Russian plane.
In addition to publishing the photo of the alleged bomb, Dabiq claimed to show images of the passports belonging to the victims of the Russian plane crash. The issue of the magazine is titled "Just Terror," and its cover depicts one of the victims of the Paris attacks. As The New Republic points out, Dabiq is named for a town in Syria that will allegedly be involved in the apocalypse. "A bomb was smuggled onto the airplane, leading to the deaths of 219 Russians and 5 other crusaders only a month after Russia's thoughtless decision," the magazine claimed.
