Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Suspected Bomber ID’d in Bulgaria Airport Attack That Killed Israeli Tourists

Bulgaria has identified a dual Lebanese-French citizen as the alleged culprit in the suicide bombing of a bus containing Israeli tourists two years ago.

The Bulgarian prosecutor’s office and the national security agency said Friday in a joint statement Friday that the alleged bomber was 23-year-old Mohamad Hassan El-Husseini, who was born in Lebanon, the Associated Press reported.

“The offender, who was using a fake driver’s license in the name of Jacque Felipe Martin, was indeed Mohamad Hassan El Husseini,” the Bulgarian State Agency for National Security and the country’s Prosecutor’s Office said in a joint press release.

Husseini had two suspected accomplices in the attack, also of Lebanese origin, who remain at large. Bulgarian prosecutors have named the two suspects as Meliad Farah, 32, an Australian citizen, and Hassan El Hajj Hassan, 25, a Canadian citizen.

“Identity was categorically established after performing the DNA expertise and numerous other investigative procedures,” it said.

Investigators also discovered that Husseini’s friends and relatives have published on social networks eulogies of his death as a “martyr,” the press release said.

“The investigation continues,” the press release added.

The July 2012 explosion outside an airport on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast killed five Israeli tourists, the Bulgarian bus driver and the bomber. Thirty-five people were wounded.

Last year Bulgaria accused the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah of mounting the attack.

Following the attack, the European Union designated Hezbollah’s military wing as a terrorist group.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version