Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi acknowledged for the first time on Wednesday that militants brought down a Russian passenger plane over the Sinai Peninsula.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi acknowledged for the first time on Wednesday that militants brought down a Russian passenger plane over the Sinai Peninsula.

"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 ISIL terrorist group that it downed the plane, which crashed on October 31, killing all 224 people on board.