Has ISIS made its presence in the skies as well?

New Delhi, Nov 5: The claim by the ISIS that it brought down the Russian airline with a surface to air missile has been dismissed. However with the US and the British intelligence suggesting that the outfit could have planted a bomb on the plane, the question is how did the outfit manage to smuggle the explosive into the aircraft?

While the talk by the ISIS of a launching a missile attack on the aircraft can safely be termed as "Rubbish," there is a greater chance of a member of the outfit smuggling a bomb into the plane. The Metrojet-operated Airbus A321 crashed last Saturday in which all 224 onboard were killed.

After the incident, the ISIS was quick to claim responsibility. It claimed it had shot the plane down. The ISIS however did not claim at any point that it had planted a bomb on the aircraft as a result of which the airliner crashed.

For the ISIS it is more important that it has managed to target an aircraft belonging to Russia. With Russia joining the fight in Syria, the ISIS has been targeted heavily. However if the ISIS had anything to do with the incident, it would prefer telling the world that the crash was a result of a missile and not a bomb.

Claiming that it has missile capabilities is more of PR exercise. Having missile technology only increases the profile of the outfit and for terror groups, the more lethal they are the better. While US and British intelligence agencies will continue to state that it was an ISIS planted bomb that led to the crash, the outfit on the other hand would not accept this theory easily and would want the missile story to remain in circulation.

How was a bomb smuggled into the aircraft?

If the ISIS really managed to smuggle a bomb in then there are bigger questions about airport security that need to be raised. The fact that three top officials including the chief of security at the Sharm el-Sheikh airport were fired is testimony of the fact that there was a major security lapse.

The ISIS could have found that the security was lax. It could have been the baggage handler or the ground crew staff who could have helped smuggle the bomb or take it into the aircraft themselves. There is a good possibility that one of the members in the staff could have been a person sympathizing or part of the ISIS.

The ISIS has only grown from strength to strength in the past couple of years. It has a major online recruitment process and there are many who are more than willing to join the outfit. If a call had been made to bomb a Russian airliner, then there would have been many takers. Russia currently is the biggest enemy of the ISIS.

Be it the missile or the bomb theory, both have not been confirmed by Russia. However if it is found that the ISIS was really behind this incident, then it is a major cause for concern as the outfit which boasts of a strong ground force is now threatening to rule the skies as well.

OneIndia News