Bulgaria arrest warrant for bomber
2013-01-03 19:58
Sofia - Sofia has identified and issued an arrest warrant
for one of several foreigners believed to have assisted a man who killed six
people plus himself in a bomb attack on Israeli tourists in Bulgaria in July, a
senior investigator was said on Thursday.
"The investigation has evidence for the implication
of three persons. The identity of one of them has already been
established," Stanelia Karadzhova, head of the regional investigation unit
in Burgas where the bombing took place, told the 24 Hours newspaper.
A search warrant has been issued, Karadzhova said. She
gave no details except to say that the suspect was male and that his country of
origin was known, even if he has resided elsewhere for the past six years.
Karadzhova also said that the suspected helpers - thought
to number two, possibly three - and the bomber were never seen together.
They also had no phones or laptops, making it unclear how
they communicated.
They were linked, however, on the basis of their similar fake
identification documents - all from the US state of Michigan - and an identical
way of life "with few needs, very ordered and simple, like in the army,
which suggests they had the same type of training," she added.
Bulgaria has already released through Interpol a
composite portrait of the bomber, whose severed head and limbs were found at
the site of the 18 July attack on a tourist bus at Burgas airport on the Black
Sea, as well as a computer-generated image of one of his suspected helpers.
The attacker, who Karadzhova said was aged between 20 and
25 and about 1.8m tall, was initially thought to have been a suicide bomber but
new evidence about his moves in the days before the attack indicated that he
did not intend to die.
"The possibilities are two - that he pushed the
button himself by mistake or if there was some turmoil, which we do not know,
that somebody 'helped' him" by triggering the explosion remotely,
Karadzhova said.
DNA samples and fingerprints from his remains have so far
found no match on any of the available Interpol databases, preventing Bulgaria
from identifying him and laying the blame for the attack at any organisation.
Immediately after the attack - which killed five Israeli
tourists and the Bulgarian bus driver and left around 30 people injured in the
deadliest attack on Israelis abroad since 2004 - Israel blamed Iran and its
"terrorist proxy" Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia movement.
Iran has denied any involvement.
