Sisi: Russian plane downed by terrorism

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi acknowledged for the first time on Wednesday that terrorism caused a Russian plane crash in the Sinai Peninsula in October that killed 224 people.

"Has terrorism ended? No ... Whoever downed that plane, what did he want? Just to hit tourism? No. To hit relations. To hit relations with Russia," Sisi said in a speech.

Sisi had previously dismissed as "propaganda" a claim by the Islamic State jihadist group that it downed the airliner on Oct 31.