Burgas: Bulgarian investigators worked with the FBI and Interpol on Friday to identify the suicide attacker behind a deadly bombing on a bus carrying Israeli tourists, as Iran denied involvement.
“The suicide bomber, wearing shorts and carrying a backpack, looked like any other tourist,” said Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov. The man who blew up a bus carrying Israeli tourists at a Bulgarian airport, killing himself and six others, was not Bulgarian, the country’s interior minister said on Friday.
Israel has accused Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants of carrying out Wednesday’s attack at Burgas airport, a popular gateway for tourists visiting the Black Sea coast. Iran has denied having any involvement.
A video released showed a white man with long hair — possibly a wig — and sunglasses wandering around the airport in Burgas. Tsvetanov said he appeared to be aged around 26 and that he had a fake driving licence from the US state of Michigan. The authorities had his fingerprints and had enlisted the help of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Interpol and Europol, to discover his identity, the minister said. The explosion ripped through the bus as around 50 Israeli tourists arriving from Tel Aviv on a plane carrying 154 people were loading their bags and boarding before travelling to a nearby Black Sea holiday and gambling resort.
Five tourists were killed at the scene while the Bulgarian driver died later in hospital, officials said. (Reuters)
