Bulgaria attack suspects buried in Hezbollah cemetery, says AP

The Franco-Lebanese perpetrator of the suicide bombing that killed five Israeli tourists in 2012 in Bulgaria was buried in a cemetery reserved for Hezbollah fighters in the southern suburbs of Beirut, The Associated Press reported Saturday.

The information was confirmed by a former Lebanese security official who negotiated the repatriation of his remains, handed over to Lebanon by the Bulgarian authorities this week. Identified as Mohammad Hassan al-Husseini, 23 at the time of the incident, the man planted a bomb on July 18, 2012, at Bourgas Airport, targeting a group of Israeli tourists from Tel Aviv. The attack, carried out as they were boarding a bus to their hotel, resulted in the deaths of five Israelis, a Bulgarian bus driver, and injured nearly 40 people. Israeli and Bulgarian authorities attributed the attack to Hezbollah.

Surveillance footage showed Husseini in the arrivals hall with a backpack shortly before an explosion devastated a bus parked in front of the terminal. Husseini was identified through DNA analysis conducted by Bulgarian investigators in cooperation with Israeli, American, and European intelligence services. He entered Bulgaria a few days before the attack, carrying a fake Michigan state driver's license.

Investigators said he was part of a three-man Hezbollah cell operating across Europe. His alleged accomplices, Meliad Farah, a Lebanese-Australian, and Hassan al-Hajj Hassan, a Lebanese-Canadian, were convicted in absentia in 2016 by the Sofia court. Both remain at large despite international arrest warrants and were placed on the U.S. intelligence services' anti-terrorist blacklist in 2015, which believes the two individuals are likely in Lebanon.

The investigation revealed that the cell members traveled through Poland, Romania and Germany, using false identities to acquire materials for the attack, and suggested that Hezbollah coordinated their training and logistics.