Bulgaria Official: Blast Suspect Had Fake Michigan Driver's License
A suspected suicide bomber in Bulgaria was carrying fake American documents.
July 19, 2012— -- The explosion on a Bulgarian bus full of Israeli tourists was likely carried out by a suicide bomber who had a fake Michigan driver's license, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borisov said today.
The attack occurred Wednesday on a parking lot outside Burgas Airport in Bulgaria, killing seven people.
Borisov said officials have yet to determine whether the suspect's U.S. passport was fake as well, according to The Novinite Daily.
The license, which was read "Michigan Operator's License," showed that the suspect included a fake Louisiana address as his permanent residence. The address is actually that of a Baton Rouge, La., casino called the Belle of Baton Rouge.
The suspected bomber was described as a Caucasian man with long hair and wearing sports attire.
The Bulgarian foreign minister said the man had been in the country for four to seven days and was about 35 years old, according to multiple Bulgarian media outlets.
"From what we could see on the [security] video cameras, we think it's a person who was a suicide bomber," Bulgarian officials in Burgas told ABC News. "The investigation is still going on in close cooperation with the Israelis and Americans."
The man was filmed walking around the airport for an hour prior to the attack by security cameras, according to the report.
Investigators said they believed he may have been a suicide bomber since his body sustained the most damage in the blast.
The victims were taken to area hospitals where some were interviewed.
"We were in the bus that exploded. There was glass in our faces. The people to get outside jumped out the windows," one woman said.
Another said she saw the bomb go off, and then saw "fire, all glass broken, people hurt, without legs, without head. It was terrible."
Bulgarian police are checking fingerprints with all international databases and analyzing bombers' DNA to see whether they can find a match with the suspected suicide attacker.
Officials earlier lowered the death toll to seven, including the suspected bomber, after mistakenly reporting that someone had died overnight. Thirty-two people remain in hospital.
Israeli PM Accuses Iran, Iran Press Calls Accusations 'Ridiculous'
Just hours after the bombing, top Israeli officials leveled accusations of responsibility at Iran and radical groups.
Israel's Minister of Defense, Ehud Barak, said it was "clearly" a terrorist attack "initiated probably by Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad or another group under the terror auspices of either Iran or other radical Islamic groups."
But the country's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, placed blame squarely on Iran and said the attack was just the latest in a "consistent pattern" of Iran-backed attacks targeting Israelis around the globe.
Over the weekend a Lebanese man was reportedly arrested in Cyprus for allegedly planning to attack Israeli targets there in a plot that Netanyahu also said was part of "Iranian terrorism."
Last month, two Iranian nationals were picked up in Kenya for allegedly plotting to attack U.S., Israeli, Saudi or British targets there, according to a report by The Associated Press. In recent months, agents suspected of plotting deadly attacks on behalf of Iran have also been arrested in the U.S., Azerbaijan and Thailand.
For its part, Iran has repeatedly blamed Israel for being behind the assassination of several of the country's top nuclear scientists in recent years. Iran's state-run news outlet Press TV said today that Israel's accusations over the Bulgaria bombing were "ridiculous" and "sensational."
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