Bulgaria blames suicide bomber for bus attack
SOFIA. July 19. KAZINFORM A bombing on a bus with Israeli tourists in Bulgaria was likely carried out by a male suicide attacker, the nation's interior minister said Thursday, CNN informs.
The attack occurred Wednesday in a parking lot outside Burgas Airport in Bulgaria. Israel has suggested Iran or an Islamic militant group could have been behind it.
"From what we could see on the video cameras ... we identified a person who served as a suicide bomber in this terror attack," Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov told Bulgarian National TV.
Another person died from the blast overnight, he said, bringing the death toll to eight. The dead are six Israelis, a Bulgarian bus driver and the suicide bomber.
Three people seriously wounded in the attack have been flown to a Sofia hospital, a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said Thursday. A further 32 wounded people were on their way back to Israel, he said.
The suspect in the attack had a Michigan driver's license, which FBI officials on the scene have identified as fake, Tsvetanov said.
As a result, the suspect's identity is "currently unknown," he said, adding that a fingerprint check was being carried out.
Tsvetanov said that the suspect didn't stand out from other tourists on video camera footage from the airport. He was wearing short khaki pants and had a backpack, he said.
The authorities believe that the suspect was carrying the bomb in his backpack, which he placed in the luggage compartment underneath the bus, Tsvetanov said.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Wednesday that the bombing was "clearly a terrorist attack."
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