Suicide bomb blamed for attack on Israelis in Bulgaria

Skooter reporting 07/19/12

The blast that killed seven Israeli tourists, and injured 30 in Bulgaria, the deadliest attack on Israelis abroad since 2004, was blamed on a suicide bomber whose identity has not yet been established, official said Thursday. The said attack was also blamed on the arch foe Iran by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The explosion tore through a bus picking up tourists arriving from Tel Aviv at the Burgas airport that would have bring them for the beaches and seaside resorts of the formerly communist European Union country.

It was reported that the dead bomber was carrying a fake driving licence from the US state of Michigan.

Passengers panicked, jumping out from bus windows, and bodies lay scattered on the ground with their clothes in tatter as ambulance sirens wailed and black smoke rose over the airport, witnesses described the incident.

Around 1400 GMT, the bus carrying Israelis who had flown in to Burgas, the second largest city on Bulgaria's Black Sea coast blew up, setting off a fire that swallowed up another two buses, the ministry said.

It was reported that many of those on the flight were Israeli high school graduates who were just about to be drafted into the military. The blast occurred just as the 50 or so tourists were boarding the bus and placing their baggages in the luggage compartment, Burgas mayor Dimitar Nikolov who was at the airport at the time said.

Netanyahu vowed saying Israel will respond forcefully to Iranian terror. US President Barack Obama condemned the bombing as a “barbaric terrorist attack” and reaffirmed his “unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security. Obama expressed his condolences to Netanyahu and both agreed that Israel and the United States would work together to investigate the attack, a statement coming from an Israeli government.

AFP