Business Insider quotes Rafik Hariri Center Nonresident Fellow Zack Gold on the Sinai plane crash and an ISIS-affiliated group, Wilayat Sinai’s, claim of responsibility for creating the bomb that took down the plane:
As Zack Gold, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Hariri Center and an expert on Sinai militancy, explained to Business Insider, the Metrojet attack actually involved an explosive device less sophisticated than others Wilayat Sinai has constructed. As he noted, the construction of the bomb itself was one of “the easiest parts of the entire plot.”
But in targeting a plane full of tourists, Wilayat Sinai was pursuing goals that go beyond inflicting a high body count or punishing civilians for the policies of their government. Instead, the group wants to do everything it can to undermine the Egyptian government, even if its actions would harm its local support.
“Wilayat Sinai and Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis before it have this operational strategy that’s more than simply fighting against soldiers and security forces of the state,” Gold said. “Really, they’re trying to collapse the state, and part of that is going after economic drivers of the state itself.”