Five victims of bus bombing laid to rest as it is revealed suicide bomber was not Bulgarian and Israel points finger at Iran

Iran denies responsibility for attack at Burgas airport on Black Sea coast



CCTV image shows man wearing Bermuda shorts and carrying a backpack

Bomber not Bulgarian and had short hair not long authorities say

He had tried to hire car but was turned down after producing suspect ID



Witnesses report the explosion happened soon after someone boarded the double-decker filled with Israeli tourists

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: 'Israel will react powerfully against Iranian terror'

There had been reports - later denied - that the bomber was a former Guantanamo inmate who was freed after two years

The five Israelis killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up at Burgas airport on Wednesday were laid to rest in a series of funerals today.

Bulgarian authorities are examining evidence from the deadly blast two days ago, trying to confirm the identity of the bomber.



They are also examining his fingerprints and the fake U.S. driving licence he had been carrying around.

The tourists had arrived in Bulgaria on a charter flight from Israel and were on the bus in the airport car park when the blast tore through the vehicle.



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Suspect: CCTV footage taken at Bulgaria's Burgas Airport shows the man believed to have carried out a suicide attack which killed eight Israeli tourists

Burying their dead: Relatives and friends fill the grave of Kochava Shriki, 44, who was killed in Wednesday's bus bombing in Bulgaria

Horror: Relatives and friends mourn 42-year-old Cochava Shriki who had recently become pregnant after years of fertility treatments, left, and right, Mrs Shriki's husband Itzik, left, attends his wife's funeral in Rishon Letzion



Body parts were strewn across the ground, mangled metal hung from the double-decker bus's ripped roof and black smoke billowed over the airport.

Video surveillance footage showed the casually dressed bomber circling around the group of buses an hour before the attack.

He had been carrying a bulky backpack, which contained the bomb he detonated in the luggage compartment of the bus, Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said.

Bulgarian prosecutors said today that the bomber had a short haircut, not the long hair seen in a security video, and tried to rent a car in the days before the bombing but was turned down because his ID appeared suspicious.



He was believed to have been about 36 years old and had been in the country between four and seven days, Tsvetanov said.



Flown home: The victims' coffins were received earlier today in a military ceremony at Israel's international airport

Israeli and American officials have blamed the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah for the bombing

Israeli and American officials have blamed the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah for the bombing, and authorities in several other countries were trying to confirm the identity of the suicide bomber.



Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said: 'The attack in Bulgaria was perpetrated by Hezbollah, Iran's leading terrorist proxy.'

No group has admitted responsibility for the attack so far, but Israel has said Iran is behind as series of attacks on its citizens in recent months.

Tsvetanov added the investigation had ruled out that the bomber was a Bulgarian citizen, but did not say how authorities know that.



Israel has pledged to hit back at Iran, charging that the bombing was just the latest in a series of attacks against Israelis and Jews abroad. Iran has denied involvement.

Counterfeit: The fake US driving licence, supposedly issued by the state of Michigan, which the bomber was carrying



On his way: The man turns to walk towards the airport exit. Police say the bomber was carrying a fake US drivers licence

Five vacationing Israelis were killed in the blast in the popular Black Sea resort town of Burgas, along with a Bulgarian bus driver and the bomber.

In the central Israeli city of Rishon Lezion, hundreds of mourners joined the family of Cochava Shriki, a 42-year-old woman who had recently become pregnant after years of fertility treatments.

'You were my baby sister, and ever since our mother died, I felt that I always had to protect you, to help you and to guide you,' her sister wailed in agony. 'Your death leaves a huge void in our lives that cannot be filled.'



In nearby Petah Tikva, childhood friends Itzik Kolengi, 28, and Amir Menashe, 27, were buried.



Kolengi's wife, Gilat, was injured in the attack and remains hospitalised. The couple have a baby daughter.



Ruled out? Mehdi Ghezali (right), who was linked to the bombing, here holding a press conference after being released from Guantanamo Bay

'I promise you that the family and I will watch forever over your wife, Gilat, and your amazing daughter, Noya, who looks exactly like you, and we'll raise her just as you would have wanted,' Kolangi's brother David said. Menashe also left behind a son.

In northern Israel, Maor Harush, 26, was laid to rest. His close friend Elior Price, 24, will be buried later Friday. A third friend remains in hospital in a serious condition.



The victims' coffins were received earlier today in a military ceremony at Israel's international airport. Seventeen Israelis remain in hospitals.

Media reports in Bulgaria earlier in the day claimed the man behind the horrific attack is Mehdi Ghezali, 33, an Algerian-Swedish Islamist.

He is believed to have spent two years in Guantanamo Bay after he was arrested in Pakistan in 2001. But when he was released and sent back to Sweden the local government refused to press charges.

Blast: The wreckage of the Israeli tourist coach. Six people and the bomber were killed and more than thirty injured in the explosion

Aftermath: Smoke rises into the sky after the explosion which the Israeli government say is the work of Tehran

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

Injured: An Israeli medic helps a survivor of the bomb attack to board an ambulance

Genuine: An example of a real driving licence issued by the US state of Michigan

Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov (left) said the bomber was carrying a fake US drivers licence while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) said Israel would react 'powerfully' against Iranian terror



However, Mark Vadasz, director of communication at Säpo – the Swedish security service - told Swedish broadsheet Svenska Dagbladet that the allegations were untrue.

‘We can say for sure that it is not this person. Reports of fingerprints is a statement the Bulgarian security service will have to take responsibility for. Other than that I cannot go into details.’

Bulgarian security services had received no indications of a pending attack.

The U.N. Security Council yesterday condemned the attack and said in a statement 'that any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed.'

Back home: Wounded survivor Nurit Harush is pushed in a wheelchair by medics after her arrival at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv

A visibly shaken Israeli survivor is comforted by a paramedic as she leaves a hospital in the city of Burgas

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the Tehran-backed Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim group Hezbollah carried out the bombing.



'The immediate executors are Hezbollah people, who of course have constant Iranian sponsorship,' Barak told Israel Radio.

The blast occurred on the 18th anniversary of a bomb attack at the headquarters of Argentina's main Jewish organization that killed 85 people and the Argentine government blamed on Iran, which denied responsibility.

Mr Netanyahu said Iran, the Jewish state's arch-enemy, was behind the attack and that 'Israel will react powerfully against Iranian terror.'



Iran's embassy in Bulgaria denied that Tehran was behind the attack.

Shock: Passengers wait outside the airport which was closed after the incident with flights redirected to the airport of Varna

Shock: Two witnesses are escorted away from the scene at the airport earlier today

Aid: A Bulgarian medic is helping an unidentified young Israeli tourists at a local hospital after the explosion which killed six people and the suicide bomber

A spokesman said: 'The unfounded statements by different statesmen of the Zionist regime in connection with the accusations against Iran about its possible participation in the incident with the blown-up bus with Israeli tourists in Burgas is a familiar method of the Zionist regime, with a political aim, and is a sign of the weakness ... of the accusers.'

Medical officials said two badly injured Israeli tourists were taken to hospitals in Bulgaria's capital Sofia. One woman was in intensive care with head and chest injuries and a man was in a critical state with burns covering 55 percent of his body.

About 30 lightly injured Israeli tourists were to be flown back to Israel later on Thursday.



Israeli officials had previously said that Bulgaria, a popular holiday destination for Israeli tourists, was vulnerable to attack by Islamist militants who could infiltrate via Turkey.

Israeli diplomats have been targeted in several countries in recent months by bombers who Israel said struck on behalf of Iran.

The mayor of Burgas on Bulgaria's Black Sea coast, said the bus was carrying Israeli tourists, but the police could not immediately confirm the nationality of the dead

Although Tehran has denied involvement, some analysts believe it is trying to avenge the assassinations of several scientists from its nuclear programme that the Iranians have blamed on Israel and its Western allies.

Israel and Western powers fear Iran is working towards a nuclear bomb but it says its uranium enrichment work is strictly for peaceful ends. Both Israel and the United States have not ruled out military action against Iranian nuclear facilities.