Iran was behind killings, says PM of Israel

ISRAELI PRIME minister Binyamin Netanyahu has blamed Iranian-backed Hizbullah for Wednesday’s terrorist attack in the Bulgarian resort of Burgas and warned the international community must prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear arms.

In a televised statement, he said the attack was part of a global campaign of terror carried out by Iran and Hizbullah, which has reached a dozen countries on five continents.

“The world’s leading powers should make it clear that Iran is the country that stands behind this terror campaign. Iran must be exposed by the international community as the premiere terrorist-supporting state that it is,” he said.

“Everything should be done to prevent Iran, the world’s most dangerous regime, from developing the world’s most dangerous weapons.” He vowed Israel would exact a heavy price from the perpetrators.

Iran denied the Israeli claims as “baseless accusations”.

More than 30 Israelis wounded in the blast, including three in serious condition, were flown home yesterday and the bodies of the five Israeli victims returned last night.

The two other people killed in the airport attack were the Bulgarian bus driver and the suicide bomber, who, Bulgarian police now say, exploded his bomb while standing next to the bus.

The Bulgarian authorities yesterday released footage from the airport reception hall showing the suicide bomber walking around shortly before the blast, carrying two large black bags.

The fair-skinned young man with long hair was wearing a T-shirt, shorts and a cap.

He was carrying a fake US passport and Michigan driving licence.

Bulgarian interior minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said the perpetrator was 36 and had been in the country for between four and seven days before the attack.

Bulgarian authorities had obtained DNA samples from the fingers of the bomber and were now checking databases in an attempt to identify him, Mr Tsvetanov said.

Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak said Israel would “do everything possible in order to find those responsible, and those who dispatched them, and punish them”.