WarSclerotic

At least seven killed in attack on Israeli tourists in Bulgaria | The Times of Israel.

( Netanyahu said on the radio that Israel will respond forcefully to this Iran/Hizballa attack. – JW )

Here’s the Netanyahu statement in full:

“All the signs point to Iran. Just in the last few months, we saw Iran attempting to hurt Israelis in Thailand, India, Georgia, Kenya, Cyprus and other countries. Exactly 18 years after the infernal terror attack in the Jewish community center in Argentina, the murderous terror of the Iranians continues to hurt innocent people. This is a terrorist Iranian aggression revealing itself all over the world. Israel will respond forcefully to the Iranian terror.”

Over 30 wounded in explosion on bus carrying Israelis inside Bourgas airport; Netanyahu says, ‘All the signs point to Iran’

At least seven people were killed in an attack on an Israeli tour bus at the Sarafovo International Airport in the Bulgarian vacation city of Bourgas on Wednesday afternoon. Some news reports put the number of fatalities as high as 10.

According to initial reports, a bomb was placed in the bus, detonating to murderous effect. The impact was so strong as to damage two other buses nearby, also with Israelis on board. Some reports said the attack was a suicide bombing, but the local mayor said the bomb had been placed on the vehicle.

Nearly all the casualties were understood to be Israelis. A Bulgarian tour guide was among the dead.

Israel Police and the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry confirmed at least 20 people were injured in the attack.

Israel canceled all planes to Bulgaria.

A Bulgarian charter plane with 170 passengers from Tel Aviv to Bourgas landed at 4:50 p.m. local time, and its passengers boarded buses to take them from the plane to the terminal. The explosion occurred a short time later.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday: “All the signs point to Iran. Just in the last few months, we saw Iran attempting to hurt Israelis in Thailand, India, Georgia, Kenya, Cyprus and other countries. Exactly 18 years after the infernal terror attack in the Jewish community center in Argentina, the murderous terror of the Iranians  continues to hurt innocent people. This is a terrorist Iranian aggression revealing itself all over the world. Israel will respond forcefully to the Iranian terror.”

Some reports said three pregnant women were on the plane, as well as members of a youth basketball team.

Aron Katz, an Israeli eyewitness, said that a few moments after they got on the bus, “we heard a really loud boom, and felt the bus shake, and we ran off the bus.”

Katz noted that he saw several couples on the bus, some with young children. “I tried to get back on the bus after the explosion to get my daughter’s wheelchair, but they wouldn’t let me. I saw a woman lying unconscious, and tried to wake her,” Katz said, adding that the scene was very chaotic.

The Bourgas airport was subsequently closed and all flights were redirected to Varna.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman spoke to his Bulgarian counterpart, Nickolay Mladenov, after the explosion, and briefed him on the situation.

Mladenov, Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov and Health Minister Desislava Atanasova were on their way to the location of the explosion.

President Rosen Plevneliev was already at the site.

Bulgarian security sources said they had received no warning whatsoever from Israeli intelligence regarding the possibility of a terror attack.

Idan Ruben, a local tour guide in Bourgas, told Channel 10 that the bomb went off “as soon as people entered the bus.” He said the bus was filled with 44 people, all of them Israelis.

An eyewitness, Gal Malka, told Channel 2 that she saw someone board the bus before it exploded.

Channel 10 reported that most of the passengers were youths.

ZAKA and Magen David Adom were sending planes to Bourgas, and MDA may try to fly the wounded home to Israel for treatment.

Iran and its proxy, Lebanese-based terror group Hezbollah, were the immediate prime suspects in the attack. Israel has thwarted numerous Hezbollah terror attacks in recent years. Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV station was broadcasting details of the bombing, with excited commentary, on Wednesday evening, Israel’s Channel 2 reported.

In January, the Foreign Ministry warned of a possible terror plot against Israelis in Bulgaria, urging Israelis to take extra precautions when traveling there. It also asked the Bulgarian government to implement extra security measures to ensure that Israeli tourists remain safe.

Last week, a suspected Hezbollah attack on Israeli tourists in Cyprus was foiled by Cypriot authorities. It was unclear whether Wednesday’s attack was related, but the Lebanese terrorist organization swore revenge against Israel four years ago, after the assassination of its terror chief, Imad Mughniyeh, in February 2008.

The Bulgarian attack coincided with the 18th anniversary of the Iranian-Hezbollah attack on the AMIA Jewish community center offices in Buenos Aires, in which 85 people were killed.

Bourgas is the second-largest city on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. It has become a very popular destination for Israeli tourists over the past few years, in the wake of Turkey’s dramatic break with Israel.

This entry was posted on July 18, 2012 at 7:17 PM and is filed under Uncategorized. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.