Russia, traces of explosives between wreckage of crashed aircraft

MOSCOW – Traces of explosives were found in the wreckage of one of the two planes crashed almost simultaneously in the night between 24 and 25 August. According to the Interfax agency, the Russian secret services believe it is possible to speak of a “terrorist act” for at least one of the crashed planes.

“On the Tupolev 154 crashed on the route for Members, we found traces of explosives,” reports a spokesman for the FSB, which investigates the disaster of the two crashed planes, to the Itar-Tass and Interfax agencies. The explosive material would have been identified as “hexogen”, the same type used in 1999 in a series of attacks that caused over 200 deaths in Russia.

Shortly after an Islamic group claimed responsibility for the hijacking of the two Russian airliners. “Our mujaheddin in the Islambouli Brigades were able to seize two Russian planes and succeeded in the enterprise despite the initial difficulties. On board of each plane there were five mujaheddin, says a statement in Arabic, published on an Internet site.

27 August 2004