Israel threatens a 'heavy price' for Iran after deadly Bulgaria bus bomb

Mr Netanyahu went out of his way to link the attack with Tehran's nuclear ambitions

Jerusalem

Israel yesterday fuelled fears of a further escalation in the already high tensions with Iran by promising to "exact a heavy price" from the perpetrators of the suicide bombing which killed seven people in Bulgaria, which it blamed unequivocally on Hezbollah.

As Bulgarian officials said the suspected bomber in the attack on Wednesday that killed five Israeli holidaymakers was a lanky, long-haired man in a baseball cap and T-shirt, carrying a fake American driving licence, Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said it had been carried out by "Hezbollah, the long arm of Iran."

There was some doubt about Bulgarian media reports that named the suicide attacker as Mehdi Ghazali, a former detainee at the US-run detainment camp at Guantanamo Bay. Mr Ghazali, who is of Algerian-Finnish origin, is said to have studied at a British mosque, and to have travelled to Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Continuing to blame Iran, under whose direct orders Israel is convinced Hezbollah acts in its operations outside Lebanon, Mr Netanyhau went out of his way to link the attack at the Black Sea resort of Burgas with Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

"The time has come for all countries that know the truth to speak it," he said. "Iran is the one behind the wave of terror. Iran is the No 1 exporter of terror in the world. A terrorist state must not have a nuclear weapon. The most dangerous country in the world must not possess the most dangerous weapon on earth."

Mr Netanyahu said that for more than a year, Iran and its proxy Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group and political party, had been conducting "a global terror campaign that crosses continents and borders, listing 10 countries, including the US, in which they had operated.

The Prime Minister pledged that Israel would "continue to pursue the attackers and exact a heavy price from those who sent them."

The categorical accusation against Hezbollah and Iran was in sharp contrast to Bulgaria's reluctance to apportion immediate blame for the airport attack in which the bus driver, as well as the bomber, was killed.

The Bulgarian Foreign Minister, Nikolay Mladenov, said that he thought "it is wrong and a mistake to point fingers at this stage of the investigation at any country or organisation."

Iran denied that it was responsible, saying that it was itself a target of terrorism, all forms of which it said it condemned.

Ramin Mehmanparast, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Tehran declared that "terrorism endangers the lives of innocents."

The Bulgarian authorities posted an airport video showing the bomber, with pale skin and long red hair, and who the Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, said had been carrying a fake Michigan driving licence, wandering into the arrivals hall of the airport, looking around and wandering out again. He is seen carrying an unusually large back pack which witnesses said contained the bomb.

Investigators have established that he had either turned towards the bus when he blew it up or pretended to be one of the passengers.

"He either had turned with his backpack toward the bus when he exploded it or pretended he was simply a normal passenger making to store in the baggage compartment when it exploded," said Mr Tsvetanov.

As the dead and injured, at least five critically so, were being airlifted back to Israel, the Bulgaria attack was being discussed by senior Israeli security officials already exercised by the separate possibility that parts of a Syrian arsenal of chemical weapons might be transferred to Hezbollah by the increasingly embattled Damascus regime.

Meanwhile, Meir Javedanfar, an Iran analyst at Israel's Interdisciplinary Centre in Herzliya, expressed doubts about apportioning blame for the Bulgaria bombing before a full investigation bore fruit, pointing out that al-Qai'da had been held responsible for an attacking targeting Israel in Kenya in 2002.

But Mr Javedanfar said if Israel's government really had solid intelligence that Hezbollah had been responsible for the bombing then it would have been under Iran's aegis, and Iran "would have made a very big mistake by doing this on European Union soil.

"It would mean that Iran's hopes of an easing of sanctions by the EU would become more distant if it was Iran's responsibility."

Top stories
News in pictures
World news in pictures
UK news in pictures
UK news in pictures
More stories
       
Independent
Travel Shop
Lake Como and the Bernina Express
Seven nights half-board from £749pp Find out more
Dubrovnik and the Dalmatian coast
Seven nights half-board from only £859pp Find out more
Prague city break
Three nights from only £199pp Find out more
 
Independent Dating
and  

By clicking 'Search' you
are agreeing to our
Terms of Use.

iJobs Job Widget
iJobs General

EAL teacher

Negotiable: Randstad Education London: EAL Teacher Required for a primary Scho...

Senior Electrical Engineering Consultant – Renewable Energy Grid Connections.

Negotiable Depending on Experience: The Green Recruitment Company: The Green R...

BREEAM Consultant

£25000 - £30000 Per Annum: The Green Recruitment Company: The Green Recruitmen...

Design Engineer - ProE, Hand Calcs

Negotiable: Progressive Recruitment: Dear Sumadhab, A growing engineering comp...

Day In a Page

'To farm I have to rape the countryside. It’s got to be wrong': The true effect of the badger cull

The true effect of the badger cull

'To farm I have to rape the countryside. It’s got to be wrong'
Theatre review: Daniel Radcliffe gives an admirably honest performance in Michael Grandage's The Cripple of Inishmaan

First night: The Cripple of Inishmaan

Daniel Radcliffe gives an admirably honest performance in Michael Grandage's comedy
Girls Guides drop religious reference but pledge to self and the Queen

Guides drop religious reference but pledge to self and the Queen

After 103 years, organisation changes oath to welcome 'all girls, of all faiths, and none'
Steve Tongue: Joe Kinnear was one of the boys and a breath of fresh air... 21 years ago

Steve Tongue

Joe Kinnear was one of the boys and a breath of fresh air... 21 years ago
Chris Froome: Free from 'pain in neck' after Bradley Wiggins' exit

Chris Froome: Free from 'pain in neck' after Wiggins' exit

Sky's lead rider says he is in fantastic form for the Tour and happy pecking order debate is over
Hannah England: I've got the right times – now to focus on the chess

Hannah England: Keeping Track

I've got the right times – now to focus on the chess
Beards, brawn and body art

Beards, brawn and body art

Meet London’s new batch of male models
Scandi-geeks descend on Nordicana for fan-convention

Scandi-geeks descend on Nordicana for fan-convention

British love of shows such as The Bridge, Borgen and The Killing shows no sign of fading
Behind the rhetoric what is really being done to combat desertification?

The Great Green Wall of Africa,

Behind the rhetoric what is really being done to combat desertification?
Laughter Inc: the cheering growth of the chuckle industry

Laughter Inc

The cheering growth of the chuckle industry
The bad science scandal: how fact-fabrication is damaging UK's global name for research

The bad science scandal

How fact-fabrication is damaging UK's global name for research
To the manor born: The female aristocrats battling to inherit the title

Female aristocrats battle to inherit the title

A passionate protest is gathering pace among the women of Britain's aristocracy, who believe that men should no longer automatically inherit the family pile and title.
Love struck: Photographs of JFK's visit to Berlin 50 years ago reveal a nation instantly smitten

In pictures: JFK's visit to Berlin in 1963

Photographer Ulrich Mack accompanied Kennedy on the entire trip. The results are an astonishing record of a watershed moment.
Eat shoots and leaves: Mark Hix gets creative with fresh peas, mangetouts and sugar snaps

Mark Hix gets creative with English peas

English peas and their offsprings, such as mangetouts and sugar snaps, are great tossed into a salad, says our chef.
Ceviche with a smile: Chef Martin Morales has turned South America's elegant cuisine into one of London's hottest food trends

Chef Martin Morales: Ceviche with a smile

Morales has turned South America's elegant cuisine into one of London's hottest food trends