Expert: No credible claims for downing EgyptAir

CAIRO (AP) — A terror analyst who is in contact with members of the Islamic State group and other jihadist groups says there have been “no credible or even semi-credible” claims of responsibility for the crash of EgyptAir Flight 804.

Shiraz Maher at the International Center for the Study of Radicalisation in London says IS on Thursday released a 20-minute video about how they planned to conquer India. He says “if they had been involved in the crash, it would be very odd for them to have sent that video rather than boasting of the crash.”

The Airbus A320 was carrying 66 people from Paris to Cairo when is disappeared early Thursday over the southern Mediterranean.

Maher said both the Islamic State and al-Qaida affiliates have been quick to claim responsibility in the past for other plane crashes, though he said the wreckage is a better indicator of whether the crash was terror-related.

Maher also said it would be highly unusual to target a plane with mostly Muslim passengers, as EgyptAir’s leaked passenger manifest has suggested.