Bulgaria bomber backed by organized threat, PM says

GlobalPost

Bulgaria’s prime minister said the suicide bomber who killed five Israeli tourists and their bus driver last week was backed by a sophisticated network.

Boiko Borisov also said the alleged conspirators spent a month in Bulgaria before the attack at the Burgas airport, The Associated Press reported.

They used “leased vehicles, they moved in different cities so as not to be seen together, and no two of them can be seen in one place on any security camera,” Borisov said, according to the AP.

However, the PM refused to divulge further details and didn’t say how many people were involved, if they were Iranian or belonged to Hezbollah, as Israel has speculated.

“There was absolutely no chance of preventing such an act of violence,” he told the AP. “We could have only detected it by chance or if we had been informed by the services that such activities were under way in Bulgaria.”

More from GlobalPost: Israel blames Iran for Bulgaria bus bombing

Borisov met reporters after speaking with US counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan today, Reuters reported.

“From what we see, they arrived nearly a month beforehand, changed rental cars and traveled to different cities … and not more than one of the people we are looking for was captured on either security camera,” Borisov said, according to Reuters.

A man boarded a bus full of Israeli tourists last week and detonated a bomb concealed in his backpack, NBC News said. The attack also wounded 30 at the Black Sea resort city of Burgas.

Bulgarian officials said the man carried a fake Michigan driver’s license.

“Bulgaria will continue to have the full support of the United States in the weeks and months ahead,” Brennan said, NBC reported.

More from GlobalPost: Alleged suicide bomber caught on security camera (VIDEO)

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