Burgas Bomb Was Remotely Detonated, Europol Confirms

The bomb that killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver in the Black Sea city of Burgas last year was remotely detonated, Europol has said in a statement.

Early assumptions in the investigation were that the attack was the work of a suicide bomber. But analysis of the bomb scene evidence by the Europol expert, including shrapnel from the improvised explosive device (IED), proved otherwise.

The evidence strongly suggested that more than one person was responsible for the attack.

Europol has also revealed that forensic and technical examination of identity documents linked to the investigation led Europol to establish that a US driving license recovered at the crime scene and another recovered elsewhere in Bulgaria were both counterfeits from the same source, located in Lebanon. This discovery was of major importance to the investigation.

Europol's press release can be read HERE.

Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov stated Tuesday that Bulgarian investigators had "a well-founded assumption" that the perpetrators of the deadly attack belonged to the military formation of Hezbollah.

Tsvetanov revealed that a man with an Australian passport and a man with a Canadian passport were two of the three conspirators involved in the attack.