New Controversies Emerge in Bulgaria Suicide Bombing Leads

A new lead emerging in the investigation of the July 18 terrorist attack in Bulgaria's Burgas is that the alleged suicide bomber has arrived from Belgium and could be a Belgian national.

The news was reported by the Bulgarian Telegraph daily, citing their own sources in the investigation.

The Belgium databases are being currently checked in detail and in a hurry.

Meanwhile, several news agencies quote the Burgas-based site Besove writing that the autopsy of the head has shown the man was likely to have been mentally retarded. The site confirms an earlier report that the said suicide bomber has been used as a mule, might not have been aware that he was going to be harmed, while the bomb has been activated remotely by the real terrorist who remains at large.

It was also announced Tuesday that the alleged suicide bomber spoke Russian fluently. A taxi driver who drove the suspect from the town of Ravda to the town of Pomorie has offered the claim.

The July 18 terrorist attack in Bulgaria's Burgas, also known as the Burgas Bus Bombing, killed 5 Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver at the Sarafovo Airport near Burgas.

An Israeli woman, who was on the ill-fated bus, was injured by the blast, and whose husband is one of the fatalities, has offered a witness account of the deadly incident. Speaking from a hospital in Israel and quoted by Israeli media, she says that the suspect came to the bus and started moving around suitcases in the vehicle's luggage compartment in order to push inside his two backpacks. (He has been carrying a smaller one around his waist.) This behavior sparkled an argument with two of the Israeli tourists, one of them the woman's husband. They objected the moving of the suitcases and at this moment the bomb exploded.

Bulgaria declines to back Israeli claims that Iran and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah played a role.

Experts on terrorism, on the Middle East, political analysts, and journalists alike are arguing that Bulgaria's Ministry of Interior is feeding false information about the bombing to selected media to prevent obstructions in the investigation and to alleviate social tensions.