This undated image made available in the Islamic State's English-language magazine Dabiq on Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2015, claims to show the bomb that was used to blow up a Metrojet passenger plane bound for St. Petersburg, Russia, which crashed in Hassana, north Sinai, Egypt, killing all 224 people on board.The Associated Press
The Islamic State, which claims to have blown up a Russia-bound jetliner shortly after takeoff from Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, released a photograph on Wednesday purporting to show the components of the bomb.
The image appeared in Dabiq, the group's online magazine, and showed what appeared to be a timer with wires, a detonator and a standard-sized 330-millilitre aluminum soda can that was filled with explosive.
There was no independent corroboration of the claim or the bomb's details.
To authenticate its claim, the Islamic State, which has carved a nascent caliphate out of western Iraq and eastern Syria, also published a photo of Russian passports. They belonged to passengers on board the doomed Airbus A321 blown up on Oct. 31, Dabiq said. If the pictured passports are genuine, it will, at least, establish that IS jihadis were scouring the crash site even before the Egyptian military secured the area.
The Islamic State also said its original plan was to bomb an airliner operated by one of the countries in the U.S.-led air war, but the Russian Metrojet plane was targeted after President Vladimir Putin launched air strikes against Syrian rebels in support of the regime headed by President Bashar al-Assad.
"A bomb was smuggled onto the airplane leading to the deaths of 219 Russians and five other Crusaders," IS said. "Revenge was exacted upon [those who] cowardly bombarded the Muslims of the Caliphate," said the text accompanying a picture purportedly showing the bomb's components.
The photo showed a can of pineapple-flavoured Schweppes Gold, what appeared to be a commercial detonator of the type used in construction or mine blasting and a homemade timing device with a switch and battery.
On Tuesday, Alexander Bortnikov, who heads Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), said explosive traces had been found by investigators and estimated the size of the bomb as one kilogram.
If, in fact, the bomb secreted on board the airliner was small enough to be contained in a soda can, then high-quality plastic explosive, such as PETN, would almost certainly be required.
Several modern jetliners have survived on-board explosions by small bombs, even ones that punched relatively large holes in the side, but even a small rent in the fuselage could instigate a catastrophic structural failure if the blast was located at a vulnerable point.
The Metrojet A321, packed with vacationers, had nearly reached its cruising altitude over the Sinai Peninsula when the explosion resulted in its tail ripping away. Wreckage and bodies were strewn along a 10-kilometre trail.