Bulgaria Re-enacts Deadly Burgas Blast Blamed on Hizbullah

Bulgarian investigators on Friday re-enacted a July 2012 bomb attack blamed by Sofia on Hizbullah that killed five Israelis, blowing up two old buses and 11 silicon mannequins in a controlled explosion.

The aim was "to provide information and important evidence on the type and quantity of explosive used" in the attack at Burgas airport on the Black Sea, chief investigator Boyko Naydenov said.

As in the real blast, which also killed one Bulgarian, the explosion tore apart a mannequin representing the bomber, spreading body parts over the test area in Ihtiman, 70 kilometers southeast of Sofia.

This confirmed the hypothesis that he was standing next to one of the bus' luggage compartments when the device went off, Naydenov said.

"The results are more than satisfactory," he said. The silicon head of the bomber was found "practically at the same distance and direction from the bus." Silicon is similar to human tissue.

Investigators believe that the bomber, who has not been identified despite police having his DNA and fingerprints, did not intend to die in the attack but planned to detonate the bomb from afar.

In July Israel immediately blamed Iran and Hizbullah, but it took until February for the Bulgarian government to also point the finger at the Lebanese group.

It remains unclear, however, how the attack in Bulgaria, a member of the European Union whose Black Sea resorts are popular with Israeli tourists, was organized.

Investigators said in February that two Hizbullah-linked accomplices had been identified as Australian and Canadian passport-holders.