The Bulgarian Interior Ministry on Wednesday released an image of the face of
the suicide bomber who murdered five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver
last month.
The ministry said the image, which had been verified to a
level of 95 percent accuracy, was generated using “modern technologies and
techniques and based on available data” collected from the face of the dead
bomber, which has been restored by police forensic officers.
Bulgarian
authorities released the image in the hope that anyone who can identify the man
will come forward to help in the investigation. A joint Bulgarian-Israeli
investigation is under way to identify the bomber and any
accomplices.
The image shows a man who appears to be white, with
combed-back dark hair and full eyebrows.
“The police did not release any
earlier photos of the bomber, who was decapitated in the explosion, as they
would have shocked the public,” Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov
said.
The minister dismissed earlier media reports that the tourists were
killed by a bomb attached to the tour bus, saying the latest information
indicating that the terrorist was holding the explosives in a bulky
backpack.
The lanky, long-haired man in a baseball cap, wearing Bermuda
shorts and carrying a large backpack, had been in Bulgaria for approximately 20
days before the attack, the minister said.
Bulgarian investigators in
July obtained DNA samples from the fingers of the bomber and were checking
databases in an effort to identify him.
Israel said Hezbollah and Iran
are responsible for the attack. Iran denied the allegation, though its President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad later hinted that his country was behind it.
“They
have indeed succeeded in inflicting blows upon us more than once, but have been
rewarded with a far stronger response,” Ahmadinejad said last month.
A
few days later, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations claimed Israel was
behind the bombing.
Israeli political and military leaders said a
response to the terrorist attack would come at a time of Israel’s choosing,
suggesting a possible covert strike against those behind the
atrocity.
Also on Wednesday, Bulgaria’s Interior Ministry said in a
separate announcement that the country’s border police arrested an Iranian who
was being smuggled into the country.
Border police pulled over a vehicle
with Italian license plates entering the country, the ministry said, adding that
the driver was Iranian.
“The owner of the car, an Italian national, was
traveling with him.
While checking, the border police officers found a
21-year-old Iranian national veiled with a blanket between the front and rear
seats. The three people were detained in a temporary detention center in the
town of Svilengrad.
The car was seized. The case is under further
investigation,” the ministry said.
Jerusalem Post staff contributed to
this report.