Metrojet Flight 9268: ISIS leaders boasted about Egypt crash: report

Communications between ISIS leaders in Raqqa, Syria, and people in the Sinai Peninsula included boasts about the downing of a Russian passenger jet over the area, the U.S.TV network NBC reported on Friday,citingunidentified U.S. officials.

"They were clearly celebrating," NBC Nightly News quoted aU.S. official as saying. The "chatter" included a boast of howthe plane was brought down.

Separately, a new video released by ISIS purportsto show Islamic State leaders in Aleppo congratulating their
counterparts in Sinai after the crash, CNN reported.

French TV station France 2 said on its website that thesound of an explosion could be heard on the black boxes recovered from the plane, according to an investigator who had access to them. The investigator ruled out engine failure, it added.

British and U.S. spies intercepted "chatter" from suspected militants as well as internal communication about the incident from one other government that suggested a bomb, possibly hidden in luggage in the hold, had downed the airliner, Western intelligence sources said.

The intelligence sources, who spoke on customary condition of anonymity, said the evidence was not categorical and there was still no hard forensic or scientific evidence to support the bomb theory.

"We still cannot be categorical, but there is a distinct and credible possibility that there was a bomb," one source said.

A Sinai-based group affiliated with Islamic State, the militant group that has seized swathes of Iraq and Syria, has claimed responsibility for the crash, which if confirmed would make it the first attack on civil aviation by the world's most violent jihadist organisation.

But Moscow, which launched air strikes against Islamist fighters including Islamic State in Syria more than a month ago, has said it is premature to reach conclusions that the flight was attacked. Egypt, which depends on tourism as a crucial source of revenue, has said there was no evidence that a bomb was to blame.

Moscow suspendedpassenger flights to Egypt, and the United States imposed newair travel security requirements in the wake of the crash of aRussian jet in Egypt, as Western officials pointed on Friday tothe conclusion it was broughtdown by a bomb.

All 224 people on board were killed in what the militants described as revenge for Russian air strikes in Syria that beganmore than a month ago.

While no official investigation has confirmed that claim ofresponsibility, countries have been cancelling flights and announcing new precautions, leaving tens of thousands ofEuropean and Russian tourists stranded at Red Sea resorts.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced newsecurity measures on Friday, including tighter screening ofitems before they are brought on board aircraft, for flights tothe United States from some foreign airports in theregion.

U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister DavidCameron have already said the crash might have been caused by abomb. Moscow initially rebuked Western countries for drawingsuch conclusions too quickly. But President Vladimir Putin'sdecision to suspend Russian flights suggests the Kremlin is nolonger trying to avert attention from thattheory.