British newspaper The Sunday Times has revealed who allegedly planted a bomb aboard the Russian plane which crashed in Egypt on October 31, naming him as Abu Osama al-Masri, an Egyptian cleric and the frontman of an ISIL-offshoot group.



�"The man known as�Masri claimed responsibility for�the Russian plane crash in�an audio statement last Wednesday�� the same day that David Cameron announced the suspension of�British holiday flights to�Sharm el-Sheikh," the newspaper says.



Plane bombing mastermind unmasked as�Egyptian cleric https://t.co/eLbWsutAbq pic.twitter.com/kAna2woLYe



��The Sunday Times (@thesundaytimes) 8 ?????? 2015

The statement, entitled "We Downed It, So Die in�Your Rage", was issued on�4 November, challenging Egyptian authorities to "prove we did not." It further said it would reveal its modus operandi in�due course.


#IS in #Sinai announces a new audio message on�the #Russia|n plane crash: "We downed it, so die in�your rage" pic.twitter.com/tKV1Yx2Z3h



��Pieter Nanninga (@pieternanninga) 4 ?????? 2015

The outlet says that Whitehall officials confirmed this weekend that Masri is a "person of�interest" in�the crash and that Britain would help Egypt or Russia in�a "kill or capture" mission.

Abu Osama al-Masri is an Egyptian cleric and frontman of�the Wilayat Sinai (Sinai Province) group, now considered a branch of�ISIL after�brokering a pact with�the terrorist organization last year in�Syria.


Some experts, however, have questioned the militant group's claim of�responsibility, pointing out�that it has failed to�provide any proof.
Intelligence officials believe that Masri's group used an airport insider to�smuggle a bomb into�the luggage hold of�the Metrojet aircraft last Saturday. It is feared the suspect is still at�large, the report said.

Sinai Province's leader is a former clothes importer known by�his alias Abu Osama al-Masri. The 42-year-old is a former scholar of�the al-Azhar University in�Cairo, a 1,000-year-old Sunni Muslim institution that gave an honorary doctorate to�the Prince of�Wales in�2008.

Meanwhile, British officials are investigating if any Britons allied to�ISIL were involved after�claims that the security services had intercepted "chatter" between�extremists with�London and Birmingham accents in�the aftermath of�the explosion.

By Sputnik News