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New evidence has bolstered the theory that a Russian passenger jet was brought down by a bomb, which resulted in the killing of all 224 people on board in Egypt, U.S. media said on Monday.
Interception of communications between operatives of the extremist group the Islamic State (IS) in Sinai, Egypt, and IS operatives in Syria heightened the credibility of the group's claim that it was responsible for the deadly incident, U.S. TV network CBS News cited U.S. intelligence sources as saying.
According to the report, the United States had intercepted chatter from IS operatives claiming that they had "an insider at the airport in Sharm el-Sheikh," a city located on the southern tip of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.
The United States was currently "working" with the Russians after Russia solicited assistance from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, said the report, adding that Washington had not yet "shared specific information" with Moscow.
Russia-bound Airbus A321 crashed in the Sinai Peninsula on Oct. 31 shortly after taking off from the Sharm el-Sheikh airport, killing all 224 people aboard.
Shortly after the incident, an IS statement said it was responsible for the crash and that the operation was retaliation for Russian airstrikes against the group in Syria.
According to initial investigations, debris from the plane was scattered over an area more than 13 kilometers long, an indication that an in-flight breakup had occurred, U.S. media reports said earlier.
European investigators said last week after studying the doomed plane's cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder that the blast was not an accident.
Ayman Moqadden, an Egyptian official who heads an investigation panel, confirmed on Saturday that a mysterious noise was heard on the recorder seconds prior to the blast. But he insisted that it was still too early to determine a cause.
Meanwhile, Russian forensic experts warned on Monday it could take weeks or even months to conclusively determine whether a bomb brought down the Russian plane.
