Interpol to Make New Push for Bulgaria Bus Bomber

Interpol said Friday it will make a new push to help Bulgaria identify the bomber who killed six people, including five Israeli tourists, at Burgas airport in July.

"Interpol plans on re-issuing the image (of the suspect), reminding people, asking people, hoping that maybe we will catch someone who is watching TV or on the Internet, who recognizes the person and can help give leads to identifying him and locating him," said the chief of the global policing body, Ronald Noble.

The new search will "increase tremendously the likelihood of identifying and locating the person responsible," he added after talks with Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov and Prime Minister Boyko Borisov.

Interpol already circulated a computer-generated picture four months ago of the July 18 bomber, who also died in the bombing but investigators are uncertain whether he intended to blow himself up.

It has also tried to match fingerprints and DNA samples from his remains with anything in international databases, but to no avail so far.

Still, Noble remained optimistic that investigators might get a break.

"Interpol has examples of many, many cases where DNA was sent to us, fingerprints were sent to us, the first response was negative and then a week later, a month later, a year later it was sent to us again and there was a hit," he said.

Interpol experts will also arrive in Bulgaria in the next two weeks to work on a new system enabling hotels, car rental offices and other tourist services to scan foreigners' passports against Interpol databases in a bid to root out fake identities.

Israel immediately blamed Iran and Hizbullah after the attack at Burgas, in which five Israeli tourists and their Bulgarian bus driver were killed, but Tehran denied any involvement.

Bulgaria has refused to point a finger at any person or organization before garnering enough evidence from the investigation.