Bomb attack in Bulgaria: Iran blamed

Whoever did it it had to be Iran.

Israel alleges Iran planned bus blast

ISRAEL has threatened to ''settle the account'' with those responsible for an attack that left at least seven people dead and dozens wounded, most of them Israeli tourists, when a bomb exploded on a bus in Bulgaria yesterday

the Age,

20 July, 2012

.

Official reports said there was evidence to suggest the explosion was caused by a suicide bomber. Surveillance cameras at the airport showed an unidentified man joining the tourists as they left the arrivals terminal and a counterfeit driver's licence from the state of Michigan in the US was found among his remains.

All signs pointed to the involvement of Iran, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. ''Over the last few months we have seen Iran's attempts to attack Israelis in Thailand, India, Georgia, Kenya, Cyprus and other countries,'' Mr Netanyahu said. ''This is a global Iranian terror onslaught and Israel will react firmly to it.''

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak went one step further, alleging the attack was ''initiated probably by Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad or another group under the terror auspices of either Iran or other radical Islamic groups''.

Describing Israel's fight against these groups as ''continual'', Mr Barak said: ''We are determined to identify who sent them, who perpetrated [the attack], and to settle the account.''

The attack comes amid concerted lobbying from Washington to quell Israel's increasingly bellicose rhetoric over Iran's nuclear program and its doubts over whether talks between Iran and six major nations aimed at curbing Tehran's uranium enrichment program were making progress.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was the latest high-level US official to visit Jerusalem in the past two weeks. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns visited Israel in the past week, national security adviser Tom Donilon was in Israel to discuss ''regional security issues'', a US State Department official confirmed, while US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta is scheduled to visit in the coming days.

The carnage in the car park of the small airport in the Black Sea city of Burgas, about 400 kilometres east of Bulgaria's capital, Sofia, was caused by explosives planted in the boot of the tourist bus, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov said, according to reports on the website of Haaretz newspaper.

Israel's foreign ministry said the bus was carrying tourists from a charter flight that arrived from Tel Aviv. Three other buses caught fire after the explosion tore through the bus, reports indicated.

Mrs Clinton condemned ''this heinous terrorist attack against innocent civilians''.

The explosion occurred on the 18th anniversary of an attack on a Jewish community centre in the Argentinian capital, Buenos Aires, which killed 85 people. 


Argentina has issued arrest warrants for several Iranian nationals, including General Ahmad Vahidi, the country's defence minister, over the attack, although Iran has consistently denied Israel's assertions that it was to blame.

Bulgarian authorities foiled an earlier bomb attack in January targeting a bus chartered to take Israeli tourists from the Turkish border to a Bulgarian ski resort, the al-Jazeera network reported.