Bus with Israeli tourists on way to airport in Bulgaria bombed.

[Magda Hassan]

Update: On Monday Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak appeared on CNN's The Situation Room.During his interview, Barak said that "We are confident without any doubt about the responsibility of Hezbollah to the actual execution of the operation, operations planning and execution." He followed this by saying that "We have direct hard evidence. I'm confident we shared it with your intelligence, we debriefed them with a few others. So I have no doubt and it of course for obvious reason we cannot share the exact evidence."

Update: The Associated Press reports that "Bulgarian police on Wednesday released a computer-generated image of the suicide attacker involved in the bombing in Bulgaria that killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver two weeks ago." Relatedly, Sofia News Agency reports that "The computer-generated image of the suicide attacker involved in the bombing in Bulgaria that killed five Israeli tourists and a local bus driver, has been verified 95%, the interior minister said."

In currently unrelated news, Sofia News Agency reports that Bulgaria "border police have caught an Iranian hidden in a car at the Bulgarian Kapitan Andreevo Border Point with Turkey."

Update: Sofia News Agency reports that "Bulgaria has asked all INTERPOL member countries to make public a computer generated image of the suspected terrorist responsible for the bombing attack on an Israeli tour bus outside Burgas Airport in Bulgaria."

Update: Sofia News Agency reports that "The Regional Prosecutor's Office in the Bulgarian Black Sea city of Burgas has asked a number of countries to trace possible cell phone contacts of the suspected terrorist responsible for the bombing attack on an Israeli tour bus." The report adds that "authorities have found a SIM card on the crime scene believed to have belonged to the perpetrator." According to Sofia News Agency, "The investigators hope to use the phone logs to shed more light on the attacker, his possible ties with some organization and his travels."

Update: An official from Bulgaria's Interior Ministry has revealed that the attack at the Burgas airport was planned abroad, however, the bomb was likely made in Bulgaria. According to the official, Kalin Georgiev, "I can definitely say that the attack was plotted, prepared and implemented by people who are very far away from Bulgaria." In addition, he said that "We also cannot talk about so-called homegrown terrorism. The people who prepared the attack did not use local criminal structures for logistic support." Interestingly, he added that "I cannot categorically confirm any of the leads but I can say that he is not the typical suicide attacker. There is a high probability that the terrorist fell victim to his own error."

Update: Sofia News Agency reports based upon the Bulgarian Telegraph that "The suspected terrorist...had a second ID document," which was also a fake. The report also adds that it is believed that accomplices used fake UK and French passports. As of now, the information in the latest report has not been confirmed by Bulgarian authorities.



Update: Sofia News Agency reports that "The alleged perpetrator of the terrorist act in Bulgaria's Burgas might have been spotted in the capital Sofia, the Head of the Sofia Police Directorate, Chief Commissar, Valeri Yordanov, informs."

Currently, the police say they cannot confirm beyond any doubt that the man has been in Sofia, only that they have received a number of tipoffs about the perpetrator noticed in the capital.

The same report adds that "Special security measures will be in place for the opening of the school year in the Jewish school in Sofia on September 15."

There is continued increased police presence at all locations where there are Israeli citizens, in shopping malls, the subway, railroad and bus stations.

Update The New York Times reports that "Israeli intelligence has evidence of many telephone calls between Lebanon and Burgas in the two months before the bombing, according to a senior government official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the information is classified, with the volume intensifying in the three days leading up to it."

Update: On August 10, Daniel Benjamin, the U.S. State Department's counter-terrorism coordinator,said that "Our assessment is that Hizbullah and Iran will both continue to maintain a heightened level of terrorist activity and operations in the near future." In addition, Benjamin said that "we assess that Hizbullah could attack in Europe or elsewhere at any time with little or no warning."

Update: Sofia News Agency reports that "The probe has decisively proven that the alleged perpetrator of the terrorist act in Bulgaria's Burgas was a suicide bomber."

The declaration, contradicting a number of reports and leads that that the perpetrator has been deluded, used as a mule, and has acted under the influence of illegal drugs, was made Sunday by investigator, Georgi Iliev, from the National Investigative Services.

..."This has been a suicide bomber, a man who knowingly sacrificed his own live in order to cause the death of many others. He is a foreign citizen who has chosen Bulgaria for this act," the investigator adamantly stated.

Update: Georgi Iliev has now retracted his comments and has now said that "There is no proven evidence that this individual had sacrificed his life to perpetrate the terror act. He is just one of those who did it. We cannot say either what his or their exact goal was." Meanwhile, Sofia News Agencyreports that "The Interior Ministry has new details and information about the terror act in Bulgaria's Burgas, but cannot release them for the public." According to Bulgaria's Interior Minister "We have new data, but it is operational and I cannot share it in public. We had some discussions today with representatives of our foreign partner services and we concluded that we can release some information to the media on Tuesday."

Update: Sofia News Agency now reports that "new details and leads in the terror act in Bulgaria's Burgas will be provided to the media and the public no earlier than Thursday, August 16." Meanwhile, Israel stands by its position that Iran and Hezbollah were behind the attack.

Update: Sofia News Agency reports that "No mistakes have been made by Bulgaria's authorities in creating the computer-generated image of the bomber in the Burgas Airport terrorist attack, Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov has declared." In another report, the Bulgarian outlet reports that "A security camera in Bulgaria's Black Sea city of Burgas has taped images of the accomplice of the perpetrator of the terror act."

Update: Sofia News Agency reports that "Bulgaria's Interior Ministry published Thursday noon a new computer-generated image of a suspected accomplice in the July 18 bus bombing in Burgas." The Interior Ministry states that "There is evidence that the man from the picture has been presenting himself with a false driving license from Michigan, the USA. He may have also used other names."

Here is the computer generated photo as well as fake driver's license.



Update: Bulgarian authorities have released an updated photo of the suspected perpetrator based upon his fake driver's license. Sofia News Agency reports that "the suspected accomplice of the perpetrator of the terrorist attack on Israeli tourists in the Bulgarian Black Sea city of Burgas has been caught on camera in Varna." Bulgarian authorities do not appear to be making much progress aside from the driver's licenses and sketches.

Update: Sofia News Agency reports that "A man from the southern Bulgarian city of Plovdiv has recognized the suspected accomplice of the suicide bomber who staged the July 18 Burgas bus bombing."

According to the witness, the man from the computer-generated image released by the Interior Ministry is a Bulgarian, who was involved with people preaching radical Islam.The police are investigating the new lead, according to reports of private TV station bTV.The Plovdiv citizen claims he worked with the suspected accomplice for five years and recognized him by the photo distributed in newspapers.Ashim Asan fails to remember the name of his colleague but says that he is a Bulgarian from the southwestern district of Gotse Delchev. Asan says that the suspect was involved with people preaching radical Islam, who were buying schools in the Rhodope Mountains."They are buying schools, they are building mosques. It was mostly the locals who were organizing things Pomaks, Roma, Turkish, it makes no difference...They were in charge in some sections and they kept the cash flow moving," the witness adds.Asan is one of the leaders in the Stolipinovo Roma borough in Plovdiv, according to Trud daily.He has a foundation and his name has been repeatedly involved in scandals.He is now serving a term at the Plovdiv prison for battery.

Update: Coroner Galina Mileva, who took part in the post-mortem examination of the bomber, has told a Bulgarian outlet that "If they [more Israeli tourists] or the kamikaze [the bomber] were inside the bus there would have hardly been many survivors."