U.S. official: '99.9% certain' Russian plane was felled by bomb

Several senior administration officials in the intelligence, military and national security community told CNN the United States is almost positive a Russian passenger jet was brought down by a bomb.

How convinced are they?

One official said "it's 99.9% certain." 

Another official told CNN on Saturday: "We believe it was likely brought down by a bomb." 

Russia-bound Metrojet Flight 9268 crashed in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula last weekend, killing all 224 people aboard.

The evidence that it might have been a bomb centers to a large extent on British and U.S. intercepts of chatter after the crash from the ISIS affiliate in Sinai to ISIS operatives in Syria around Raqqa. 

U.S. and British intelligence have been analyzing the specific language in the chatter to determine to what extent the operatives were talking about the type of bomb and detonator used, and whether that language was a true representation of what happened, one official told CNN. 

Several officials said it's the specificity of the chatter that has directly contributed to the U.S. and British view that a bomb likely was used.

Egypt considering all possibilities 

Egyptian officials gave the impression Saturday they are not ready to say there was a bombing. 

A noise was heard in the final second of the cockpit voice recording on Metrojet Flight 9268 as it ascended on autopilot before apparently breaking up about 23 minutes after takeoff, the head of Egypt's investigation said Saturday.

No conclusion as to what brought down the flight has been reached, Ayman al-Muqaddam told reporters.

"All the scenarios are out on the table," he said. "We don't know what happened exactly."

In-flight breakup

European investigators who analyzed the two flight recorders are saying the crash is not an accident, CNN affiliate France 2 reported Friday.

Muqaddam said Egyptian authorities have not been provided any information or evidence tied to reports suggesting that a bomb took down the flight. He urged the sources of the reports to pass along related evidence to Egyptian investigators.

Muqaddam did not describe the noise investigators picked up from the cockpit voice recorder when the flight disintegrated midair while traveling at 281 knots (323 mph) at about 30,000 feet and climbing. 

"A spectral analysis will be carried out by specialized labs in order to identify the nature of this noise," he said.

The investigation includes experts from Egypt, Russia, France, Germany and Ireland. In recent days the probe has been hampered by bad weather, Muqaddam said. 

Debris from the plane was scattered over an area more than 13 kilometers long, suggesting an in-flight breakup, according to Muqaddam. 

"Maybe it's a lithium battery, maybe it's an explosion, maybe it's ... a mechanical issue," he said the possible cause of the crash. 

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said the international community had not heeded Egypt's calls to deal seriously with terrorism. 

Other countries "did not show a level of cooperation and direct targeting of these organizations that we hoped for," Shoukry said. "I can say these calls were not heeded by many of the parties who are now working to protect the interests of their citizens."

While couched as a complaint, the statement appeared to mark a significant reversal for Egypt, where officials, perhaps concerned about the fate of the tourist industry, had spent a week rejecting the idea that the Russian plane fell victim to terrorism.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told CNN's Barbara Starr that officials were taking "precautionary interim steps" to increase security on international flights into the United States during the investigation of the Egypt air disaster. 

"ISIL is out there now active in a lot of different areas and, while this investigation is pending and because we have this group claiming responsibility, we believe it's significant to do these things on an interim basis," he said, referring to claims of responsibility by the Sinai branch of the terror group also known as ISIS.

Johnson said authorities are evaluating whether additional measures were necessary. DHS chief seeks to reassure American fliers after downing of Russian plane

What we know, don't know

Egypt's announcement

Russian President Vladimir Putin suspended Russian air traffic with Egypt on Friday until the cause of the crash is determined, the Kremlin said.

The United States and Britain shared their intelligence with Russia before Putin decided to suspend flights, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told CNN's Matthew Chance.

Putin spoke with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi about the security situation in Egypt. 

"The two leaders agreed to strengthen cooperation between the relevant security authorities in the two countries," el-Sisi's office said.

Bergen: Why ISIS is on a roll

Russia's resistance

Russia had resisted the theory that a bomb brought down the airliner, but with Friday's indefinite suspension of flights it seemed to be moving toward acceptance of the speculation.

The jet, carrying mostly Russian families returning from Red Sea vacations, was 23 minutes into its flight last Saturday from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg when it disappeared from radar over the Sinai Peninsula.

A U.S. satellite detected a heat flash over Sinai. The plane broke apart and fell 30,000 feet. All aboard died.

Russia's about-face buttressed a theory about the cause of the crash. As investigators pick through the rubble of the Russian airliner, and as Western officials sift through their own intelligence reports, some suspect Flight 9268 was brought down by a bomb planted in its hold.

And some believe think the bomb may have been smuggled on board in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, from which the flight departed.

Since Friday, 1,200 Russian citizens have been evacuated from Egypt on 6 planes, Russian state broadcaster Russia 24 reported, quoting Oleg Safonov, the chief of Russia's Federal Agency for Tourism Oleg Safonov. The channel reported that the Egyptian military checked the passengers before they boarded the planes.

About 80,000 Russian tourists remain in Egypt, with 79,000 of them in Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh, he said. Hurghada, like Sharm el-Sheikh, is a Red Sea tourist city.

And UK officials were "urgently" working with Egyptian authorities on "permanent measures that will allow British tourists to come back to Sharm el-Sheikh as soon as possible," the British Embassy in Cairo said Saturday. The embassy statement said "Britain is not evacuating its tourists early from their holidays."

Opinion: What's at stake for Putin in investigation

Bomb theory

The bombing theory emerged Wednesday, when Britain suspended flights from Sharm el-Sheikh to the United Kingdom because of security fears.

It gained currency when it was expressed publicly by British Prime Minister David Cameron and U.S. President Barack Obama, though neither called it a certainly. 

Talks between the United States, Egypt and Russia could result in the FBI providing some experts, particularly bomb technicians, to assist in the investigation, according to a U.S. official.

Cameron said it was "more likely than not" that the cause of the crash was an onboard bomb. Obama said it was "certainly possible."

If plane was bombed, where might suspicion fall?

Does downing of plane mark ISIS' emergence as global threat?

EU turns to African leaders to stem migrant crisis

EU leaders will push their wary African counterparts to help tackle the migration crisis at a summit in Malta this week, offering them billions of euros in aid in exchange for cooperation.

Having recently pressed Turkey to stem the flow of Syrian refugees, Europe is turning its attention to the other main source of an unprecedented number of people fleeing across the Mediterranean.

The gathering of more than 50 leaders from both continents on Tuesday and Wednesday will see an overwhelmed Europe call on Africa to take back more people classed as economic migrants and not refugees from war.

In return, Europe will offer development funds in a fresh thrust by the wealthy EU to tackle the wars and poverty in Africa that are the root cause of nearly a quarter of the nearly 800,00 migrant arrivals in Europe this year.

"It's a new impetus we want to give," a European diplomat told AFP. The summit was first called months ago when the Mediterranean route from a lawless Libya was still the main springboard for migrants travelling to the EU in battered fishing boats and flimsy dinghies.

Since then the journey from Turkey over the hazardous Aegean Sea to the Greek islands, and then up through the Western Balkans, has become the principal route, but the EU wants to keep a focus on Africa.

Eritreans make up the bulk of nearly 140,000 migrants who arrived in Italy from Africa by sea in 2015, along with 18,000 Nigerians and 8,000 Sudanese, according to International Organization for Migration figures.

"Despite the current focus on Syria, the Valletta summit is very important for European capitals, because it is aimed at tackling a long-term problem," the diplomat said.

- 'Trust fund' for Africa -

He acknowledged the concerns of senior African officials like Khadim Diop, Senegal's minister for African integration. 

"We cannot tolerate double standards," Diop said, adding Europe admits people from the Middle East and central Asia as refugees while turning away Africans as economic migrants.

Invited to the meeting are leaders from more than 30 African countries, including Libya as well as Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan, the sources of many people fleeing conflict and repression.

Also due to attend are the leaders of Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and Nigeria in the drought-stricken Lake Chad basin, where 2.5 million people have been displaced by abject poverty and the Boko Haram Islamist militant movement.

The 28 EU leaders will hold a second, separate summit on their own immediately after the EU-Africa meeting on Wednesday.

The African nations will be asked to approve an action plan aimed at tackling the root causes of mass migration, according to a draft obtained by AFP.

It calls for stepping up diplomatic efforts to ease or resolve conflicts, such as those in Libya and the regions of Sahel, Lake Chad and the Horn of Africa.

The plan also aims to boost economic and agricultural development.

The European Commission is also expected to announce a 1.8-billion-euro ($2.0-billion) emergency trust fund for Africa to underpin the plan, but member states have been slow to match that amount.

"How can we engage in a serious and responsible dialogue with our African cousins if we ourselves are unable to fulfil the promises we have made them," Commission President Jean-Claude Junker said last month.

The plan involves Europe sending many economic migrants back home while opening legal channels for a limited number of others to enter the EU, where joblessness has fuelled a growing popular backlash against migrants.

African countries are reluctant to take back nationals to avoid losing billions of euros in remittances, which exceed the value of development aid, a European diplomat said. 

The leaders are also asked to crack down on ruthless migrant smugglers with the help of international police agency Interpol.

Media tycoon & former Russian press minister Lesin dies from heart attack at 57

Mikhail Lesin, a prominent Russian political figure and mass media expert credited with inspiring the creation of Russia Today (now RT), has died in Washington, DC after a heart attack.

Lesin, a former press minister and ex-head of Gazprom-Media, Russia’s largest media holding, died at the age of 57 on Wednesday, according to family members. “Mikhail Lesin died from a heart stroke,” a family member told RIA Novosti.

Meanwhile, TASS has reported that Lesin was found dead in his hotel room in Washington, DC, citing the Russian Embassy in the US. Police found no signs of foul play, but a formal investigation has been launched. It has been reported that Lesin had been suffering from a prolonged unidentified illness.

Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his sincerest condolences to Lesin’s family early on Saturday.

“The president has a high appreciation for Mikhail Lesin’s massive contribution to the creation of modern Russian mass media,” the Kremlin’s press service said.

Lesin was born in Moscow on July 11, 1958. A graduate of Moscow State University with a degree in Civil Engineering, he served as Minister of Press and Mass Media from 1999 to 2004. He was also a presidential media adviser from 2004 to 2009.

Lesin became chief executive officer at Garprom-Media in 2013 and remained in the position until early 2015.

Lesin believed in making Russian views heard at the international level. “It’s been a long time since I was scared by the word propaganda,” Lesin said back in 2007. “We need to promote Russia internationally. Otherwise, we’d just look like roaring bears on the prowl.”

2015 Global Competitiveness Top 10 Brands from China Announced by IDG

The awarding ceremony of the internationally authoritative competition 2015 Global Competitiveness Brands Top 10 from China was held in San Francesco on November 6, 2015. Leading companies well known for their global competitiveness and sustainable growth received trophies on the ceremony. They are SinoPec, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, China Life Insurance, China Mobile, Huawei, China Electronics Corporation, ZTE, Tencent and Alibaba. The three single prizes -- the Most Sustainably Competitive Brand, the Most Popular Brand with Core Competence, and the Brand with the Most Innovative Competence -- respectively went to SinoPec, Great Wall Technology and China Life Insurance, showcasing the competitiveness of Chinese companies.

A new structure of the world coupled with the rise of disruptive technologies has substantially changed the global landscape of branding power, unanimously agreed the judge panel of the 2015 competition. While China in this process has become a must-win market for the titanic multinational companies, the global influence and competitiveness of Chinese brands have also been largely bolstered. In the context that new information technologies like the mobile Internet and cloud computing are driving companies around the world to evolve to a new business model characterized by "market + the Internet + ecosystem," Senior Chinese Leadership put forward the idea "Internet Plus" at the National People's Congress in March 2015. This gave the booming Chinese brands a new impetus in exploiting the potentials of technology breakthroughs, product innovation, and communication and marketing. The winners of the 2015 Global Competitiveness Brands Top 10 from Chinaare those who kept sharpening the global competitive edge of their brands through developing new strategic thinking and offering excellent products, technology and services. They successfully captured business opportunities by upgrading the brand value and prepared themselves for future growth as both the pioneers and the locomotives in the "Internet Plus" age. 

Global Competitiveness Brands Top 10 from China, organized by IDG, has been successfully held for six years. Continuingly unfolding China's branding power to the rest of the world, this year's competition under the theme "Shaping the New Landscape of Internet Plus Brand" incorporates the new growth potentials enabled by future-oriented marketing competency of a brand as an important assessment criterion, to look into the new growth points of brands in the age of "Internet Plus."

In parallel with the awarding ceremony, the organizer held an Executive Leadership Training at University of California, Berkeley. The training helped the Chinese companies to develop a new strategic mindset in the Internet Plus Age, enhanced the overall capabilities of Chinese brands on their road to globalization in terms of sustainable competitiveness and sustaining development and strengthening global competitiveness with robust development.

In the Internet Plus Age, as companies around the world are embracing another wave of high-speed growth driven by e-commerce, industrial Internet and e-finance, Chinese brands are set for a new voyage. For instance, featured high safety performance, ZTE AXONwas a state gift Chairman Xi Jinping presented to UK Government. Global Competitiveness Brands Top 10 from Chinademonstrates the strength of Chinese brands, helps Chinese enterprises to make innovative breakthroughs in the Internet Plus Age to harness the potentials of future marketing. Ultimately the branding strengths will gear up the Chinese firms to succeed in the global market and realize the goal of sustainable development.

Apple's Respect For Music Challenged

Apple’s latest advert for Apple Music ran during the Country Music Association’s Awards ceremony. Fronted by singer-songwriter Kenny Chesney, he talked about the power of his music, and the effort that he puts in for his fans. He asked for a place where music has human element because “music is the last real thing we got”.

And in all of this talk of the special place that music has, of how music and creatives need be treasured, the final message of the advert screams that you can have ‘three months free’.

For all of the strong numbers posted by Apple, its adventures in the streaming music subscription space has been underwhelming. Given Apple’s size, Cupertino was always going to be able to capture a significant share of the market, but it still believed that it had to push hard to promote the service.

Apple Music was rolled into an iOS update, forcing the client onto every iOS handset. It overloaded the already clunky interface that makes up the music playing app on iPhone and iPad. It saw the Windows and OSX versions of iTunes forced to balance yet another bolt-on feature on top of the already sprawling code. If you use any Apple products, there was no way you would miss Apple pushing the service to you. Which was all the more painful because of the bugs in Apple Music that wrecked countless iTunes libraries around the world.

As Apple announced details of the service, it assumed that artists would be happy to see their music downloaded and consumed for three months without any recompense, presumably because of the amazing exposure that Apple Music would offer them. It is only now, some five months after the launch of the service, that many users will be seeing the impact of the first month’s subscription on their credit card bills. 

The free three months coupled with the typically long billing cycles in the credit card industry has kept the financial impact of Apple Music away from the consumers until now.

You could say this is to allow consumers to get a good feel for the service and the value for money it offers, but I’m more inclined to think that it gives users more time to download vast collections of music, build up playlists of content only available on subscription, and generally work to get lock-in through the emotive connections that music makes (and once that is sorted, do it all over again on Android).

 I’m not sure how a global radio station adds the human touch to everyone’s music collection. I’m not sure I can balance this altruistic view of music and the creative process with a reliance on star power to advertise the service, an all-you-can-listen to subscription model that was promoted by force to every Apple user, and the idea that every performer would be happy to have their work downloaded for free over the three-month trial period in exchange for the old chestnut of ‘exposure’. Chesney talks about a place that offers “real reverence and respect” for music.

Citing Climate Change, Obama Rejects Construction of Keystone XL Oil Pipeline

WASHINGTON —  President Obamaannounced on Friday that he had rejected the request from a Canadian company to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline, ending a seven-year review that had become a symbol of the debate over his climate policies.

Mr. Obama’s denial of the proposed 1,179-mile pipeline, which would have carried 800,000 barrels a day of carbon-heavy petroleum from the Canadian oil sands to the Gulf Coast, comes as he seeks to build an ambitious legacy on climate change.

“America is now a global leader when it comes to taking serious action to fight climate change,” Mr. Obama said in remarks from the White House. “And, frankly, approving this project would have undercut that global leadership.”

The move was made ahead of a major United Nations summit meeting on climate change to be held in Paris in December, when Mr. Obama hopes to help broker a historic agreement committing the world’s nations to enacting new policies to counter global warming. While the rejection of the pipeline is largely symbolic, Mr. Obama has sought to telegraph to other world leaders that the United States is serious about acting on climate change.

The once-obscure Keystone project became a political symbol amid broader clashes over energy, climate change and the economy. The rejection of a single oil infrastructure project will have little impact on efforts to reduce greenhouse gas pollution, but the pipeline plan gained an outsize profile after environmental activists spent four years marching and rallying against it in front of the White House and across the country.

Mr. Obama said that the pipeline has occupied what he called “an overinflated role in our political discourse.”

“It has become a symbol too often used as a campaign cudgel by both parties rather than a serious policy matter,” he said. “And all of this obscured the fact that this pipeline would neither be a silver bullet for the economy, as was promised by some, nor the express lane to climate disaster proclaimed by others.”

Republicans and the oil industry had demanded that the president approve the pipeline, which they said would create jobs and stimulate economic growth. Many Democrats, particularly those in oil-producing states such as North Dakota, also supported the project. In February, congressional Democrats joined with Republicans in sending Mr. Obama a bill to speed approval of the project, but the president vetoed the measure.

The rejection of the pipeline is one of several actions Mr. Obama has taken as he intensifies his push on climate change in his last year in office. In August, he announced his most significant climate policy, a set of aggressive new regulations to cut emissions of planet-warming carbon pollution from the nation’s power plants.

Both sides of the debate saw the Keystone rejection as a major symbolic step, a sign that the president was willing to risk angering a bipartisan majority of lawmakers in the pursuit of his environmental agenda. And both supporters and critics of Mr. Obama saw the surprisingly powerful influence of environmental activists in the decision.

“Once the grass-roots movement on the Keystone pipeline mobilized, it changed what it meant to the president,” said Douglas G. Brinkley, a historian at Rice University who writes about presidential environmental legacies. “It went from a routine infrastructure project to the symbol of an era.”

Environmental activists cheered the decision as a vindication of their influence.

“President Obama is the first world leader to reject a project because of its effect on the climate,” said Bill McKibben, founder of the activist group 350.org, which led the campaign against the pipeline. “That gives him new stature as an environmental leader, and it eloquently confirms the five years and millions of hours of work that people of every kind put into this fight.”

Environmentalists had sought to block construction of the pipeline because it would have provided a conduit for petroleum extracted from the Canadian oil sands. The process of extracting that oil produces about 17 percent more planet-warming greenhouse gases than the process of extracting conventional oil.

But numerous State Department reviews concluded that construction of the pipeline would have little impact on whether that type of oil was burned, because it was already being extracted and moving to market via rail and existing pipelines. In citing his reason for the decision, Mr. Obama noted the State Department findings that construction of the pipeline would not have created a significant number of new jobs, lowered oil or gasoline prices or significantly reduced American dependence on foreign oil.

“From a market perspective, the industry can find a different way to move that oil,” said Christine Tezak, an energy market analyst at ClearView Energy Partners, a Washington firm. “How long it takes is just a result of oil prices. If prices go up, companies will get the oil out.”

However, a State Department review also found that demand for the oil sands fuel would drop if oil prices fell below $65 a barrel, since moving oil by rail is more expensive than using a pipeline.

 An Environmental Protection Agency review of the project this year noted that under such circumstances, construction of the pipeline could be seen as contributing to emissions, since companies might be less likely to move the oil via expensive rail when oil prices are low — but would be more likely to move it cheaply via the pipeline. The price of oil has plummeted this year, hovering at less than $50 a barrel.

The recent election of a new Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, may also have influenced Mr. Obama’s decision. Mr. Trudeau’s predecessor, Stephen Harper, had pushed the issue as a top priority in the relationship between the United States and Canada, personally urging Mr. Obama to approve the project. Blocking the project during the Harper administration would have bruised ties with a crucial ally.

While Mr. Trudeau also supports construction of the Keystone pipeline, he has not made the issue central to Canada’s relationship with the United States, and has criticized Mr. Harper for presenting Canada’s position as an ultimatum, while not taking substantial action on climate change related to the oil sands.

Mr. Trudeau did not raise the issue during his first post-election conversation with Mr. Obama.

The construction would have had little impact on the nation’s economy. A State Department analysis concluded that building the pipeline would have created jobs, but the total number represented less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the nation’s total employment. 

The analysis estimated that Keystone would support 42,000 temporary jobs over its two-year construction period — about 3,900 of them in construction and the rest in indirect support jobs, such as food service. The department estimated that the project would create about 35 permanent jobs. Republicans and the oil industry criticized Mr. Obama for what they have long said was his acquiescence to the pressure of activists and environmentally minded political donors.

“A decision this poorly made is not symbolic, but deeply cynical,” said Senator Lisa Murkowski, the Alaska Republican who leads the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. “It does not rest on the facts — it continues to distort them.”

Jack Gerard, the head of the American Petroleum Institute, which lobbies for oil companies, said in a statement, “Unfortunately for the majority of Americans who have said they want the jobs and economic benefits Keystone XL represents, the White House has placed political calculations above sound science.”

Russ Girling, the president and chief executive of TransCanada, said in a statement that the president’s decision was not consistent with the State Department’s review. “Today, misplaced symbolism was chosen over merit and science,” said Mr. Girling, whose company is based in Calgary, Alberta. 

“Rhetoric won out over reason.”

The statement said that the company was reviewing the decision but offered no indication if it planned to submit a new application. If a Republican wins the 2016 presidential election, a new submission of the pipeline permit application could yield a different outcome.

“President Obama’s rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline is a huge mistake, and is the latest reminder that this administration continues to prioritize the demands of radical environmentalists over America’s energy security,” said Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who is seeking the Republican nomination for president. “When I’m president, Keystone will be approved, and President Obama’s backward energy policies will come to an end.”

As Mr. Obama seeks to carve out a substantial environmental legacy, his decision on the pipeline pales in import compared with his use of Environmental Protection Agency regulations. The power plant rules he announced in August have met with legal challenges, but if they are put in place, they could lead to a transformation of the nation’s energy economy, shuttering fossil fuel plants and rapidly increasing production of wind and solar.

Those rules are at the heart of Mr. Obama’s push for a global agreement.

But advocates of the agreement said that the Keystone decision, even though it is largely symbolic, could show other countries that Mr. Obama is willing to make tough choices about climate change.

“The rejection of the Keystone permit was key for the president to keep his climate chops at home and with the rest of the world,” said Durwood Zaelke, the president of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, a Washington research organization.

Islamic State Egypt branch suspected in plane crash remains elusive

The Islamic State branch suspected of bringing down a Russian airliner in Egypt had eluded a security dragnet by operating in secretive cells inspired by a leader who used to import clothes for a living, Egyptian intelligence officials say.

Western officials are increasingly pointing the finger of blame at Sinai Province, which has focused on killing Egyptian soldiers and police since the military toppled President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013 after mass protests.

If solid evidence emerges it attacked the aircraft, that would instantly propel the group to the top of the jihadi ladder, with one of the deadliest attacks since al Qaeda flew planes into the World Trade Center in New York in 2001.

If a bomb knocked Airbus A321 (AIR.PA) out of the sky, that would challenge Egypt's assertions that it had brought under control militants who have carried out high-profile attacks on senior government officials and Western targets.

Security experts and investigators have said the plane is unlikely to have been struck from the outside and Sinai militants are not believed to have any missiles capable of striking a jet at 30,000 feet.

Sinai Province is partly the product of Egypt's efforts to eliminate militancy, which has threatened the most populous Arab country for decades, according to the intelligence sources.

The three officials, who closely follow the Sinai-based insurgency, say many of its fighters fled to Syria after Mursi was removed and then army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi unleashed security forces on Islamists, both moderate and radical.

Sinai Province's leader - a 42-year-old former clothes importer known by his nom de guerre Abu Osama al-Masri - studied at Al-Azhar, a 1,000-year old Egyptian center for Islamic learning that supports the government, said the officials.

But like others who learned in a center known for its moderation, he was radicalized and took up arms in Sinai before heading to Syria with about 20 followers when security forces clamped down on Islamists after Mursi's departure, the sources said.

'THEY BECAME EXPERTS'

There, he and the other fighters gained experience that would prove useful upon their eventual return to the Sinai, when they were approached by Islamic State and embraced its goal of creating a caliphate across the Muslim world. 

It seems they were mesmerized by Islamic State's mysterious Iraqi leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, said the officials. 

Islamic State sent arms and cash by boat from Iraq to neighboring Libya, where militants have thrived in the chaos that followed the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, said another intelligence official.

A porous border then enabled Baghdadi's supporters to travel to Sinai, on the other side of Egypt, to deliver the goods to Islamist militant comrades, the officials added.

"Other militants taught them how to evade capture and they learned how to shoot accurately and assemble bombs," said one of the intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"They became experts." 

Will McCants, director of the Center for Middle East Policy at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, said that not a lot is known about the working relationship between the Islamic State's Sinai affiliate and the movement's central leadership. 

But the Egyptian group – like other affiliates – appears to enjoy considerable autonomy.

The state security crackdown launched against the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists has gained the Islamic State's Sinai branch significant local support, allowing its fighters to hide and operate among ordinary people, he said.

SECRETIVE

During Mursi's time, security officials allege, militants from al Qaeda, including some who had traveled from as far away as Afghanistan, had a free hand in Sinai.

They included about 4,000 fighters who would form the core of Sinai Province, which was called Ansar Beyt al-Maqdis before declaring its support for Islamic State last year, said the officials.

The crackdown on Islamists by Sisi - now president - led to many militants being killed, jailed or fleeing for countries like Syria and Libya.

Sinai Province now consists of only hundreds of militants scattered into groups of 5-7 men, which have few links to reduce the chances of capture, said the officials.

"They are very secretive," one of the intelligence officials said. "Each cell doesn't know about other cells."

Another said: "It's a small number of militants but it takes just one person to carry out a suicide bombing."

Last year, security officials said Masri and a few other leaders had been killed. 

He later appeared in a video purported to prove he is alive and reaffirmed his loyalty to Baghdadi. Masri could be seen kneeling beside weapons he said were seized from 30 Egyptian soldiers killed in an attack. 

A military armored personnel carrier burned in the background.

A tribal leader in the Sinai told Reuters he had recently noticed pro-Islamic State militants driving around in new Toyota Land Cruisers. Some had Apple computers.

"It seems they are getting more and more ambitious," he said.