Bulgarian Israeli Tourist Bus Bombing                                    

Source: Reuters

154 Israeli vacationers, including eight children, on board a flight to the Bulgarian Black Sea tourist destination of Burgas landed at 5:00PM, Wednesday.  After landing, the group boarded three buses.  Suddenly an explosion ripped apart the third bus instantly killing six Israeli tourists and the Bulgarian bus driver injuring more than 35 others, including three in critical condition. The other buses were set on fire by the blast.  There was an indication that an unknown person many have boarded the bus detonating the explosives, a possible suicide bombing of the type that Israelis have learned to fear most.

Watch this RT report on the Burgas terror attack on Israeli tourists:

Eyewitnesses among the Israeli tourist described the horror of terror in this CNN report:

Oren Katz, who was on a bus next to the one that blew up, together with his wife and three children, described a bloody scene.
“The moment we got on (the bus), we heard a very loud explosion. It was the third bus next to us. Everyone started running in all directions. There was a big chaos,” he said.

“We took our children with us and ran as far as we could away from the explosion. My oldest daughter is handicapped, so I decided to run back in order to pick up her wheelchair.

“There was a big blaze of fire, and we were not allowed to come near. Suddenly, I noticed an unconscious woman lying next to me, very close to the burning bus. I picked her up together with another man, and we managed to drag her out of the fire that was about to catch her body in seconds.

“I cannot forget the sight of body parts scattered around the bus. Ambulances and fire trucks have just started to arrive.”

President Obama called  it a ‘barbaric terrorist act”.    In his statement he went on to say:

As Israel has tragically once more been a target of terrorism, the United States reaffirms our unshakeable commitment to Israel's security, and our deep friendship and solidarity with the Israeli people," said Obama, who later called Netanyahu to express his condolences.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States is prepared to assist Bulgaria and Israel in bringing those responsible to justice.

However as the CNN report indicated: “Neither she nor Obama mentioned Iran in their statements.”

Israeli PM Netanyahu unlike President Obama and Secretary Clinton was emphatically clear about who might have perpetrated this dastardly act:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pointed the finger at Iran, saying it has been behind a string of recent attempted attacks on Israelis in Thailand, India and Georgia, among others.

"All the signs (are) leading to Iran," he said. "This is a global Iranian terror onslaught and Israel will react firmly to it."

Last weekend, the Cypriot government with assistance from Israel foiled what could have been a disastrous attempt to destroy an Israeli aircraft in another popular vacation spot for Israelis.   PM Netanyahu noted in his remarks:

Cypriot police arrested a Lebanese suspected of plotting an attack against Israeli interests in the Mediterranean island, the Cypriot media reported on Saturday. On his part, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quick to denounce the "Iranian terrorism" after this arrest. "The Iranian terrorism has no borders. After Iran sent its men to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States, its attacks in Azerbaijan, in Bangkok, Tbilisi, New Delhi and Africa, it has now revealed its intention to perpetrate a terrorist attack on the soil of Cyprus," said Netanyahu.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center in a bulletin sent by email noted that today was the 18th Anniversary of the AMIA Jewish Center Bombing in Buenos Aires that killed more than 85 Argentine Jews and Israelis injuring many others.  The perpetrator was  Hezbollah terrorist mastermind Imad Mughniyeh.

In  February 2012, we posted on the Iconoclast that the terrorist events PM Netanyahu referred to in his remarks last weekend coincided with the Fourth Anniversary of Mughniyeh’s assassination in a bombing of his vehicle in Damascus.  We noted the connections:

[Mughniyeh] was the organizer of the 1992 Buenos Aries Israeli Embassy bombing that killed 29 injuring more than 242 persons and the bombing in 1994 of the AMIA Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 injuring hundreds. Mughniyeh figured prominently in the trial record  of the recent Iran Links case decision in the Southern District Court of Manhattan as the key figure who facilitated transit between Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran for the so-called Hamburg cell of 9/11 perpetrators.

There was speculation in the wake of today’s  terror bombing of Israeli tourists in Burgas, Bulgaria that PM Netanyahu might use this as a predicate for the much discussed possible attack on Iran’s nuclear program.  Like the foiled Cypriot plot where a Lebanese national suspect was arrested, the suspicion is that a Hezbollah proxy might have been the perpetrator of the Burgas terror bombing.  Overarching the earlier attempts and today’s terror bombing in Bulgaria is the supposition that the orchestrator was Iran’s special ops intelligence unit, the Qod’s Force.  All the fingerprints appear to be present.  Perhaps Bulgarian and Israeli forensic investigations will unearth those connections between proxy and Iranian Qod’s Force masterminds.