Bulgaria attack ‘planned abroad, bomb made on site’

The deadly bomb attack on Israeli tourists last month at Bulgaria’s Burgas airport was planned abroad, but the explosive device was likely made in Bulgaria, a top Interior Ministry official said yesterday.

“I can definitely say that the attack was plotted, prepared and implemented by people who are very far away from Bulgaria,” ministry chief of staff Kalin Georgiev told the 24 Hours newspaper .

“We cannot talk about so-called homegrown terrorism. The people who prepared the attack did not use local criminal structures for logistic support,” he added.

The explosive itself, however, was likely assembled on Bulgarian soil, Georgiev said.

“There is nothing specific about its make. Our experts estimate that it was assembled somewhere close as no one would risk carrying an activated improvised explosive device (IED),” he said.

The bomb’s components were legally available in any shop both in Bulgaria and abroad, he noted.

“In the method of assembly or the fabrication of the IED, there are no characteristic features typical of any one terrorist structure,” he added.

The bomber’s identity still remains a mystery over two weeks after the attack, even if investigators have reconstructed a portrait via computer technology based on his severed head, which was found at the site of the attack.

The probe is also looking at accomplices the bomber may have had, including a woman who reportedly stayed with him in a hotel before the attack, and another man.

It is unclear if the bomber, who killed five Israeli tourists and the Bulgarian driver of the bus on July 18, intended to die in the attack, whether he was killed as a result of his own mishandling of the device or whether it was detonated from a distance.