(JTA) — Bulgaria’s interior minister confirmed that his country has new evidence that Hezbollah was responsible for the deadly 2012 terrorist attack on Israeli tourists on Bulgarian soil.
Tsvetlin Yovchev said during a news briefing Wednesday, on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the attack in Burgas, that the additional evidence makes it clear that Hezbollah masterminded the attack, the Sofia News Agency reported.
A Bulgarian representative to the European Union said last month that investigators discovered that a Hezbollah operative was the owner of a printer used to produce fake documents that facilitated the July 18, 2012 bombing of a bus filled with Israeli tourists. Five Israelis and their Bulgarian driver were killed in the attack.
The identification of the bomber is still not certain, Yovchev said.
“The position of Bulgaria on the terror act in Burgas is absolutely real, there is no change in it and we have leads pointing at Hezbollah,” Yovchev said.
Bulgaria has put increased security measures into place at bus stations, airports and hotels in advance of Thursday’s one-year anniversary of the attack, according to the Sophia News Agency.
Meanwhile, European and Israeli diplomats believe that European Union foreign ministers will decide at a meeting next week that Hezbollah’s military wing should be included on the EU’s terror list.
