We know where the Bourgas suicide bomber’s accomplices are, Bulgarian official says
The identities and current location of the three accomplices of the Bourgas Airport terrorist suicide bomber, who took the lives of five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian, are known, the head of Bulgaria’s directorate-general against organised crime said on February 6 2013.
Stanimir Florov was speaking in a television interview a day after Bulgaria announced that its investigation into the July 2012 terrorist attack on a group of Israeli tourists led to people from the military wing of Hezbollah.
Of the three, one is said to be an Australian passport holder and another a Canadian passport holder, both with dual nationality with Lebanon. Australian and Canadian law enforcement authorities have confirmed that they have been involved in the investigation.
Florov said that there was still no information about the identity of the bomber, who had not been found in the Interpol and Europol databases.
In a February 6 television interview, Foreign Minister Nikolai Mladenov said that Bulgaria would not have said that the investigation pointed to people from the military wing of Hezbollah if it lacked sufficient evidence to do so.
Lebanon’s prime minister had said that the country was willing to co-operate in the investigation, because it also had an interest in the facts being established.
On February 5, Najib Mikati said, “Lebanon affirms its confidence that the concerned authorities in Bulgaria will seriously evaluate the results of these investigations and affirms its readiness to co-operate with the Bulgarian state to shed more light on the circumstances of this issue to achieve fairness and safeguard justice”.
Mladenov said that Bulgaria would co-operate with Lebanon and all partners to bring the investigation to a conclusion.
Among the most immediate issues after Bulgaria said that its investigation leads to people from Hezbollah was whether the European Union would declare Hezbollah a terrorist organisation. Such a declaration would require the agreement of all 27 member states.
In a February 5 statement, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the implications of the investigation need to be assessed seriously as they relate to a terrorist attack on EU soil, which resulted in the killing and injury of innocent civilians.
Ashton, according to the statement, underlined “the need for a reflection over the outcome of the investigation. The EU and member states will discuss the appropriate response based on all elements identified by the investigators.”
