Bulgaria’s New Interior Backs Version of Hezbollah Role in Burgas Terror Attack

The July 2012 bus bombing at the Sarafovo Airport in Burgas killed seven, including five Israeli tourists, the Bulgarian bus driver and the alleged suicide bomber. Photo by BGNES

The new leadership of the Ministry of Interior has said it stands behind the “reasonable assumption,” first voiced by the former Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov, that the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah is responsible for the bus bombing at the Burgas airport that killed six people in July 2012.

Announcing plans for reforms in the security sector on Thursday, Interior Minister Tsvetlin Yovchev and Chief Secretary Svetlozar Lazarov, made clear the stance of the Ministry on the terror attack.

“There is no change in the Bulgarian stance on the act of terror in Sarafovo. My expert opinion, as I am acquainted with the conclusions and the facts, gathered up to now in the investigation, is that the announced stance of my colleagues is right and I support it,” the Interior Minister stated.

Yovchev added that the recent collection of “additional evidence” on the matter also leads to the conclusion that Hezbollah is responsible for the bus bombing that killed five Israeli tourists and their Bulgarian bus driver.

Bulgaria’s new Foreign Minister Vigenin said on June 5 that "the evidence is not categorical" that Hezbollah planned the attack.

International media then commented that the Balkan country had “backed away from charges” that the Shi'ite Muslim militant group had carried out the attack.

The European Union is expected to make a decision in late 2013 whether to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.

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