Eurasia Press & News
The Interior Ministry has new details and information about the terror act in Bulgaria’s Burgas, but cannot release them for the public, says Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov.
“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,” Tsvetanov, cited by the Focus news agency, told journalists Monday.When asked if the investigation has established the identity of the perpetrator, the Minister offered a firm “No,” adding the authorities need additional help from Bulgarian citizens and hope the information that will be released through the media will reach them and they will contribute to the unraveling of the case.
Regarding information published by New York Times that there has been an unusually large number of phone calls between Lebanon and Burgas in the days preceding the attack, Tsvetanov stated that he could not comment on any information shared between Bulgarian and foreign services.
The July 18 terrorist attack in Bulgaria’s Burgas, also known as the Burgas Bus Bombing, killed 5 Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver at the Sarafovo Airport. The initial lead, purported by the Interior Minister was that it has been executed by a suicide bomber, who arrived from abroad.
According to observers and terror experts, this lead is looking less and less reliable and the most sustainable hypothesis is that the perpetrator has been used as a mule.
Israeli media largely back the above, writing that the young man with light complexion and blue eyes had been blown remotely, while standing between two coaches with Israeli tourists. He had been unaware that he was going to die and had the task to put the explosive on one of the buses. The bomb was placed in his backpack.
Remains of the man recovered from the scene of the fatal attack were used to create an image showing his possible appearance as part of an appeal for public assistance in identifying him.
At the request of Bulgarian police, INTERPOL issued a Black Notice – used to seek information about unidentified corpses – to each of its 190 member countries in all four official languages (Arabic, English, French and Spanish) and is now also publishing this reconstructed image to engage the public’s help in identifying the man.
