Israel Cites Iran in Bulgaria Strike

By JOSHUA MITNICK And GORDON FAIRCLOUGH

AFP/Getty Images

A picture showed destroyed buses after a bomb explosion at Bourgas airport July 18. Three people were killed and more than 20 wounded.

An explosion tore through a bus packed with Israeli tourists in a Bulgarian beach-resort city, killing four people, wounding dozens and heightening tensions after Israel quickly blamed Iran. Josh Mitnick has details on The News Hub. Photo: AFP/GettyImages.

TEL AVIV?An explosion tore through a bus packed with Israeli tourists in a Bulgarian beach-resort city Wednesday, killing at least six people, wounding more than 30 others and raising tensions in a Middle East already on edge as Israel quickly blamed Iran and vowed revenge.

Plumes of dark smoke rose over the parking lot of an airport in Burgas, on Bulgaria's Black Sea coast, after the blast engulfed the vacationers' bus and triggered fires in other nearby vehicles. Israel's foreign minister said his Bulgarian counterpart told him a bomb had been planted on the bus.

An explosion tore through a bus packed with Israeli tourists in a Bulgarian beach-resort city, killing four people, wounding dozens and heightening tensions after Israel quickly blamed Iran. Josh Mitnick has details on The News Hub. Photo: AFP/GettyImages.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a sharply worded statement just hours after the explosion Wednesday declaring that "this is an Iranian terror attack that is spreading throughout the entire world," and adding: "Israel will respond with force."

European Pressphoto Agency

Smoke billowed from the scene of the explosion, and several buses and cars at the airport parking lot were on fire near the bus.

Tehran didn't immediately issue any comment. No group immediately claimed responsibility.

U.S. President Barrack Obama denounced the attack as "completely outrageous" and said the U.S. "will stand with our allies, and provide whatever assistance is necessary to identify and bring to justice the perpetrators."

Since the start of this year, Israeli diplomatic missions and Israeli tourists have been targeted in a series of attacks and attempted attacks, many of which have been thwarted, in countries ranging from Thailand to Cyprus, where last week authorities said they arrested a Lebanese man on terror charges.

Israel and other governments have linked the incidents to Iran and its Lebanon-based ally, militant Shiite group Hezbollah. Iran has accused Israel of conducting a covert campaign to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists. Analysts see the alleged Iranian attacks as attempts at retaliation.

"It's obvious there is an Iranian campaign," said Shmuel Bar, an Israeli counterterrorism expert at the Interdisciplinary Center at Herzlya. "It has to do with dissuading Israel by sending a message that if there's an Israeli attack on Iran, then we can cause problems?It's a form of preemptive deterrence."

Wednesday's explosion in Bulgaria comes against escalating fighting in Syria that could alter the dynamics of the conflict between Israel and Iran and Hezbollah. Israel fears Hezbollah and Iran will take advantage of chaos in Syria to launch cross-border attacks into Israel.

But the Burgas attack fits the pattern of recent plots against Israeli interests abroad. Burgas has become an increasingly popular vacation spot for Israelis as tensions between Israel and Turkey have mounted.

The blast struck at around 5:30 p.m. local time, soon after a plane of vacationers from Tel Aviv landed and passengers boarded buses to shuttle them to their hotels.

"I was on the bus and heard a big boom," said Gal Malcha, an Israeli survivor interviewed by Israel's Channel 2 news. "We got out by a hole made from the explosion."

After the explosion, Bulgaria stepped up security for the Jewish community in the Bulgarian capital Sofia, home to most of the country's 5,000 Jews.

It coincided with the anniversary of the bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires 18 years ago that killed 85 people. An Argentinian magistrate concluded Iran was behind that attack.

Wednesday's attack was the latest in a disturbing chain of incidents that started with alleged plots in Azerbaijan and Thailand in January followed by bomb attacks aimed at Israeli diplomats in India and Georgia in February.

The same month, Thai police arrested two Iranian men in Bangkok after they apparently accidentally triggered explosives they were preparing.

A third Iranian was arrested in Malaysia after fleeing. Thai authorities said the men were planning to assassinate Israeli officials.

In June, Kenyan security forces arrested two Iranians who they said then led them to a cache of explosives that they said they had assembled for attacks on Israeli, British or Saudi targets in the country.

?Joe Parkinson contributed to this article.

Write to Gordon Fairclough at gordon.fairclough@wsj.com

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444464304577534922286189802.html?mod=rss_asia_whats_news

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