A man claiming to represent an Islamic group in Yemen said on Monday the Egyptian charter plane that crashed Saturday was brought down in an "attack" by the group's members, in a telephone call to AFP.
The man, who said he was an Egyptian calling from Cairo, said he spoke on behalf of a group dubbed Ansar el-Haq (the Apostles of Truth), which he said carried out an attack that brought down the plane.
Ansar el-Haq is based in Yemen, he said.
A Boeing 737 operated by a Cairo-based charter firm, Flash Airways, plunged into the Red Sea on Saturday shortly after taking off from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all 148 people aboard, mainly French tourists.
Egypt has ruled out terrorism as a cause of the crash and pointed to an unspecified technical fault. French officials said it appeared to have been a classic accident on take-off.
The caller also warned that his group would launch an attack "soon" against Air France "if France does not go back on its decision to prohibit the Islamic headscarf" in state schools. (Albawaba.com)
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