A deadly bomb attack on a bus full of Israeli tourists in Bulgaria was likely the work of a male suicide attacker carrying a fake US passport, the Sofia News Agency reported, quoting the Bulgarian Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov.
The FBI, CIA and Israeli authorities are helping Bulgarians investigate Wednesday’s attack, which killed eight people, and wounded 34 others, when the bus exploded at Burgas airport, by the Black Sea.
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The Interior Ministry said the death toll had risen to eight, including the suspected bomber, after the Bulgarian bus driver died in hospital.
Initially, authorities believed a bomb had been placed in bus’s luggage compartment, The Jerusalem Post reported, but investigators changed tack after counterfeit documents were discovered on the body of a Caucasian male.
The passport identified the man, who had long hair and was wearing sports clothing, as a resident of Michigan. According to the Associated Press, he was also carrying a Michigan driver’s license that has being sent to the FBI for authentication.
In the hour before he boarded the bus, the suspected bomber was filmed on security cameras walking around the airport.
The Post reported that the man’s body had sustained the most severe damage, suggesting that he had detonated a device located on his person.
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The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, immediately blamed Iran for the attack, the BBC reported, adding that Israel would “respond forcefully to Iranian terror.”
“All the signs lead to Iran. Only in the past few months we have seen Iranian attempts to attack Israelis in Thailand, India, Georgia, Kenya, Cyprus and other places,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
