President Putin offers reward for capture of Metrojet plane bombers

NOW that investigators have declared that the Metrojet flight 9268 which crashed shortly after taking off from Sharm el Sheikh International Airport on October 31 with the loss of 224 lives was caused by a homemade explosive device equivalent in power to up to 1kg of TNT, the Russian President Putin has condemned the killers as ‘barbarians’.

In a televised speech, he confirmed that he has ordered special services to focus on finding those responsible for bringing down the plane and the Russian Government is offering a US $ 50 million (€47 million) reward for information that leads to the capture of those responsible for the atrocity.

In the meantime, Egyptian security officials said that a total of 17 people have been detained following the crash, two of whom were workers at the airport and are suspected of aiding those who planted a bomb aboard the plane although the Egyptian Ministry of Interior has since denied that the two airport workers have been arrested.

Reuters reported on November 17, that Egyptian forces discovered a group of Daesh-affiliated ‘Sinai Province’ militants in a cave about 70km from the site of the Russian plane crash killing 24 of the militants and arresting eight of them who officials hope will reveal further information about the explosion.