The "soda can" bomb the Islamic State's official magazine claimed brought down a Russian airliner over Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on Oct. 31, killing all 224 people on board, appears similar to the explosive devices that may have been used by terrorists to blow up residential buildings in Moscow in 1999, the Kommersant newspaper wrote Thursday.
The paper cited unidentified experts, reporting that the photo of a 0.33 liter Schweppes soft drink can appearing in IS' Daqib magazine was strongly suggestive of grenades and booby traps used in the North Caucasian conflict in the 1990s, especially by militants led by the Saudi-born Chechen independence fighter Ibn al-Khattab.
The report added that cans packed with explosives and detonated by a similar mechanism may have been used in the Russian apartment bombings on Sep. 9 and Sep. 13, 1999, which led to the deaths of at least 218 people. Moscow later alleged that al-Khattab had masterminded the attacks.
Daqib on Wednesday published a photo of a Schweppes soft drink can it said was used to make an improvised bomb; a detonator and switch were depicted alongside it.
Moscow confirmed Tuesday that the Sinai crash last month was likely caused by a terrorist attack. The Egyptian government, on the other hand, said it has still not found evidence backing this conclusion, Reuters reported Thursday.
The Islamic State is a terrorist organization banned in Russia.
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