Israel vows to strike back at Iran
An unidentified injured Israeli tourist is carried in front of Borgas hospital after an explosion at Burgas airport, outside the Black Sea city of Burgas, Bulgaria. / AP Photo
(CBS/AP) SOFIA, Bulgaria - Israel vowed to strike back at Iran for a brazen daylight bombing Wednesday that killed at least seven people on a bus full of Israeli tourists in Bulgaria.
The bombing was the latest in a series of attacks attributed to Iran that have targeted Israelis and Jews overseas and threatened to escalate a shadow war between the two arch-enemies. Iran has denied involvement in the past but did not comment on Wednesday's attack.
President Barack Obama termed it a "barbaric terrorist attack" and called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to pledge U.S. help in finding the perpetrators.
The blast gutted the bus at the airport in the quiet Black Sea resort city of Burgas, some 250 miles east of the capital, Sofia, where the Israelis had just arrived on a charter flight from Tel Aviv carrying 154 people, including eight children.
Black smoke billowed into the sky from the stricken bus after the bomb exploded. Young Israelis said they were just boarding when the blast ripped through the white vehicle in the airport parking lot. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said at least seven people were killed.
"We were at the entrance of the bus and in a few seconds we heard a huge boom," said Gal Malka, an Israeli teenager who was slightly wounded.
Israel blames Iran in deadly Bulgaria bus blastThe resort town has become a popular travel destination in recent years for Israelis, particularly for recent high school graduates before they are drafted for mandatory military service.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which wounded 30 others. But suspicion immediately fell upon Iran and its Lebanese proxy, the Hezbollah guerrilla group.
"All signs point to Iran," Netanyahu said. "Just in the past few months, we have seen attempts by Iran to harm Israelis in Thailand, India, Georgia, Kenya, Cyprus and more. This is an Iranian terror attack that is spreading across the world. Israel will react forcefully to Iran's terror."
The Israeli leader gave no evidence to back his charges.
(At left, watch the CBS Evening News report on the bus bombing in Bulgaria.)
Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev said that while Mossad, Israel's spy agency, had met with officials in his country just a month ago, they gave no warning of a possible threat on Bulgarian soil, according to the Jerusalem Post.
Top Israeli security officials were holding consultations late Wednesday. The Israelis said they were still weighing their options on how to respond, and there were no preparations under way for an immediate reaction.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss a sensitive security matter, said any reaction would probably be a pinpoint operation limited in scope, most likely under the auspices of the Mossad spy agency.
The officials said security officials also were concerned about further attacks, similar to a string of incidents in India, Georgia and Thailand earlier this year, and were reviewing security at potential Israeli targets, such as airline terminals and diplomatic installations.
In this file photo, a man walks over the rubble left after a bomb exploded at the Argentinian Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA in Spanish) in Buenos Aires, on July 18, 1994.
/ Getty ImagesThe violence also came against the broader backdrop of the international standoff with Iran over its nuclear program. Israel, accusing Iran of developing nuclear weapons, has repeatedly hinted it is prepared to strike Iranian nuclear targets if Tehran does not curb its suspect program.
In the past, Iran has accused Israel of being behind a series of covert attacks on Iranian nuclear targets, ranging from the assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists to mysterious computer viruses that have damaged Iranian centrifuges.
Israel has never admitted to involvement, but it and others have accused Iran of reprisal missions, including a February bombing in New Delhi that wounded an Israeli diplomat's wife and the discovery of a cache of explosives in Bangkok that Thai officials claim was linked to a plot against Israeli diplomats.
Israeli officials also have long warned that the Iranian-backed Hezbollah would try to attack Israelis abroad. Hezbollah has accused Israel of assassinating a top leader in Damascus in 2008 and vowed to avenge the killing. Israel has never admitted involvement in the mysterious explosion.
In statement, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak cited Iranian-backed militants and other radical Islamic groups as the likely perpetrators of the Bulgaria bombing.
"We are in a continual fight against them. We are determined to identify who sent them, who perpetrated (the attack), and to settle the account," he said.
Israeli counterterrorism expert Boaz Ganor said Wednesday's attack was "likely not the last in a series," adding, "All this looks like Hezbollah, Iran or a combination of the two."
Despite repeated alerts and concerns of an Iranian-backed attack in recent months, Israel said it had no advance intelligence on a pending attack in Bulgaria.
Smoke rises into the sky after an explosion at Burgas airport, outside the Black Sea city of Burgas, Bulgaria, some 250 miles east of the capital, Sofia, Wednesday, July 18, 2012.
/ AP PhotoLieberman, the Israeli foreign minister, said he was briefed by his Bulgarian counterpart and informed that a bomb was planted in the bus as it was transferring tourists from the airport.
He said six people died at the scene and another at the hospital. Two others were in critical condition.
Britain also condemned the attack, with British Foreign Secretary William Hague offering condolences to the victims' families.
Late Wednesday, Israel announced it was dispatching a military medical and relief team to Bulgaria, a country of 7.3 million bordering Greece and Turkey.
The Burgas airport was closed and traffic redirected. In Sofia, meanwhile, Mayor Yordanka Fandakova ordered a stronger police presence at all public places linked to the Jewish community. There are some 5,000 Jews in Bulgaria and most live in the capital.
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Incitement of hate is an old method of getting the people's 'highest purpose duty to God' feelings, emotions, beliefs, etc, prepared for engaging in acts of violence, destruction and murder, against (usually) members of a 'different' religious following or different beliefs.
Inciting hate, is an evil and primitive method which preys upon the basic, easily-aroused fears, emotions, and of course that 'highest purpose in the name of God.'
In addition to enabling followers to commit all sorts of evil, destruction and murder to become 'acceptable religious responsibility' by misleading victim/followers, such incitement is cultivated into powerful peer pressure by the masses, who are prohibited, shunned, beaten and/or murdered' for deviating, or for NOT committing similar or same acts of evil as does everyone around them.
RELIGION AND THE MINDSET THAT RELIGIOUS FANTASY CREATES,
ASSURES OUR FAST-APPROACHING END-OF-WORLD SCENARIO
The major problem for entire humankind, is that seemingly, just about anything, and just about any religious leader's 'personal power objectives' are able to be manipulated in ways that wrongfully and EVILLY exploit the easily-misled-by-religion follower/victims.
With the advent of Nuclear Weapons being applied for 'holy, religious obligations', as the current Iranian regime plans and PRAYS FOR, so The Mahdi or Islamic Messiah can be 'ushered in', (however only AFTER world destruction) ...
... "Earth, we have a problem."
Or try reading their words in the original Farsi or in English on the official Iranian news agency publications. There is no need to make up excuses for them, as the Iranian government means what it says and publishes what it means.
kind of.............
the Israelis are assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists in an effort to save their country from a nuclear attack.
The Iranians, in full delusional mode think these petty attacks on civilians(not petty to the families of the deceased course) are going to extract some kind of revenge, assuage their putrid egos and somehow demoralize Israel.
All it is going to do is hasten the Iranian demise.
idjits