Security at El Al counters boosted amid terror concerns (JERUSALEM POST) By YAAKOV KATZ 07/20/12)
Source: http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=278229
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Israel boosted security at El Al airport counters and around
embassies across the globe on Thursday amid concern that Iran and
Hezbollah are plotting additional attacks in the near future.
On Thursday, officials from the Mossad and the Shin Bet (Israel
Security Agency) convened a meeting to discuss future coordination
and to assess the threat level in various countries throughout the
world.
Defense officials said that specific attention was being given to
airports where security was lax and to Israeli tour buses, like the
one that was attacked on Wednesday by a suicide bomber in the
Bulgarian resort town of Burgas.
On Thursday, Bulgaria released video footage of the suspected bomber.
He is seen wearing shorts, a baseball hat, with long hair and a
backpack.
ABC News obtained a photograph of the fake Michigan driver’s license
authorities found, which named him as Jacque Filepe Martin from Baton
Rouge, Louisiana.
Bulgaria is checking to see if the passport found on his body was
also forged.
Bulgarian authorities said that the bomber had arrived in the country
about four to seven days before the bombing and that he was about 35
years old.
Security authorities said that he had carried the explosives in his
backpack and that it was possible that he had not initially intended
on carrying out a suicide attack.
“It’s possible he did not plan on being a suicide bomber and instead
intended to place the bag on the bus but something went wrong. Either
way, we will never know,” one official said.
Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said that the bomb went
off when the bomber was standing at the entrance to the bus. In the
meantime, security has been beefed up outside of Jewish synagogues,
schools and institutions in Bulgaria.
The country is also searching for additional suspects who might have
helped the bomber arrive in Burgas and supply him with the
explosives. One possibility is that he arrived in Bulgaria via Turkey
or came from a local Muslim family in Bulgaria.
“Hezbollah has a presence in the country,” one official noted. (©
1995-2011, The Jerusalem Post 07/20/12)
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