F-15s, troops from 493rd deploy to Bulgaria

Troops and fighter aircraft from the 493rd Fighter Squadron have been sent to Bulgaria as tensions in Eastern Europe continue to run high.

 

A dozen F-15s and approximately 180 personnel from the 493rd, based at RAF Lakenheath, England, have deployed to Graf Ignatievo Air Base to participate in a two-week bilateral training exercise with the Bulgarian air force, Pentagon spokesmen Col. Steve Warren told reporters Monday.

 

The exercise began Monday and will continue through Sept. 1.

 

The purpose of the deployment is to “conduct training and focus on maintain joint readiness while building interoperability,” Warren said.

 

The move comes at a time when America’s Eastern European partners and allies are concerned about Russian military intervention in Ukraine. There are fears that Moscow might try to destabilize other countries in the region.

 

“This is a reflection of our steadfast commitment to enhancing regional security,” Warren said about the exercise.

 

Last week the Pentagon announced that approximately 600 soldiers from the Army’s 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, based at Fort Hood, Texas, will deploy to Poland and the Baltic states in October for a three-month series of land warfare training exercises.

 

The First Cavalry will bring M-1 Abrams tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and armored personnel carrier for the exercises, according to the Defense Department

Bulgaria's Navy Needs New Ships, Submarines

Bulgaria's Navy need 2-3 new multifunctional ships, said the commander of the Bulgarian Navy, Rear Admiral Dimitar Denev, quoted by the BTA wire service.

The ships should be built in Bulgarian shipyards, because the current ones are old, Russian-made and do not comply with NATO standards. If they are built in Bulgaria, they would be cheaper and the maintenance would be easier, in Denev's words.

According to Denev, the new ships must be multifunctional – for defence of other ships, oil platforms and convoys and have a helicopter on board.

He said the Navy also needs new submarines. Currently the training of Bulgaria's navy staff takes place on Turkish submarines, because Bulgaria has zero submarines

Bulgaria asks for permanent US troops presence – report

Bulgaria has asked the United States to place a permanent military force in the country aimed at strengthening security in the region and increasing their military cooperation, local media reports.

­Bulgarian Defense Minister Anu Anguelov has discussed the opening of a US military base in Novo Selo, near Sliven, with officials of the Pentagon in early December, reports Dneven Trud daily newspaper citing sources in the Bulgarian military.

Nothing has yet been set in ink, but if the deal is to go through, it could double the American troop numbers in the country, according to the report. 

If an agreement is reached, anti-war activist Brian Becker, argues it would surrender Sofia’s power to the US government, as troops pose “a threat to the national sovereignty of the people of Bulgaria because they have foreign military bases, and it incorporates Bulgaria, makes it more secure as part of an American political, economic as well as military formation. You really can't be a free country and free people and have foreign troops on your soil,” he told SW.

US troops have been present in Bulgaria for over six years under a Defense Cooperation Agreement signed by the both states in April 2006.  Under the arrangement, Americans are allowed to train their troops at four Bulgarian bases, which remain under Sofia’s command and under the Bulgarian flag. 

However, the presence of the US forces in Bulgaria is also an American “method” of securely “fastening the country and its economy and its political leaders to Washington both in terms of the incorporation of US military equipment, selling US military goods abroad, which is a big business here”, Becker says.

Such a military buildup will also threaten Russia, Becker added, as “there is a strong motive force to maintain the cold war even without the Soviet Union and to incorporate the countries of eastern and central Europe, the former Warsaw Pact countries into an American sphere of interest through the medium of NATO.”

The treaty also permits the US to use the bases “for missions in third country without a specific authorization from Bulgarian authorities.” 

Only 2500 troops are present in Bulgaria at the moment. They include armor, mechanized infantry and airborne infantry or light infantry

Iran envoy accuses Israel over Bulgaria bus bomb

Israeli soldiers carry the coffin of one of the five Israelis who were killed during an explosion on a tour bus in Burgas, Bulgaria, after their arrival at the Ben Gurion airport outside Tel Aviv, early 20 July 2012.

Iran's UN envoy yesterday accused Israel of staging a suicide bomb attack on an Israeli tourist bus in Bulgaria.

The envoy Mohammad Khazaee said Israel staged the attack, in which five Israelis and their Bulgarian driver were killed, as part of a campaign of "state terrorism operations and assassinations aimed at implicating others for narrow political gains." The comments in a UN Security Council debate on the Middle East outraged Israeli officials, who have accused Iran and their Lebanese militia ally Hezbollah of carrying out the July 18 attack near Burgas airport.

Khazaee said "the representative of the Zionist criminal regime leveled baseless allegations against my country" over the Bulgaria attack.

Iran would never take part in such a "despicable attempt on the lives of innocent people," he added.

"Such (a) terrorist operation could only be planned and carried out by the same regime whose short history is full of state terrorism operations and assassinations aimed at implicating others for narrow political gains," Khazaee said.

The envoy said there were "many examples" of Israel killing "innocent Jewish people" and renewed accusations that Israel has been behind recent killings of Iranian nuclear scientists.

Haim Waxman, Israel's deputy UN ambassador, said: "These comments are appalling, but not surprising from the same government that says the 9/11 attack was a conspiracy theory and denies the Holocaust." Waxman reaffirmed his government's accusations against Iran. "Iran's fingerprints are all over last week's horrific attack in Bulgaria -- and in dozens of other terrorist plots in recent months that span five continents and at least 24 countries," he said.

Bulgaria - Falco Evo UAV makes flight debut

Selex Galileo has performed the first flight of its Falco Evo tactical unmanned air vehicle, with the 40min debut having been conducted from the Bulgarian air force's Cheshnegirovo air base.

In a 24 July statement, the Finmeccanica company said the extended endurance version of its in-service Falco design was flown to an altitude of only 1,500ft (460m) to check its three flap configurations, and handled "exceptionally well".

 

"After performing several approaches aimed at verifying the behaviour during landing, the Falco Evo touched down smoothly and returned to the hangar, where it will await further trials including testing of its flight and mission envelopes," Selex Galileo said.

Capable of carrying a maximum payload of 100kg (220lb) and with a flight endurance of up to 18h, the Falco Evo design was unveiled at the Paris air show in June 2011 (below).

Burgas Suicide Bomber Spoke Russian - Report

The suicide bomber who killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver in the Bulgarian city of Burgas last Wednesday spoke Russian fluently, according to a local media report.

A taxi driver who drove the suicide bombing suspect from the town of Ravda to the town of Pomorie has claimed that he spoke Russian.

The taxi driver in question has declined invitations to talk to the media.

However, some of his colleagues have reported his statement to the Burgas24.bg news website.

On Monday, reports surfaced that Bulgarian police are investigating the involvement of two more accomplices involved in the deadly July 18 bus bombing at the airport in the resort city of Burgas.

Israel has said it suspects Iran or an Islamist militant group such as Hezbollah is behind the attack, a claim that has added to tension between Israel and Tehran. Iran, which has condemned the attack, has rejected Israel's claims.

Iran Strikes Back

Israeli investigators have concluded that the recent terror attack against Israelis in Bulgaria was carried out by the Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah terrorist organization. Hezbollah is a Shia radical group that is obsessed with destroying Israel and turning Lebanon into a Shia religious dictatorship. Hezbollah is facing hard times because of the rebellion next door in Syria. There, an Iran backed secular dictatorship has been under attack by most Syrians for 16 months and the government is losing. A new government would be hostile to Iran and Hezbollah. Syria has been a supply line (from Iran) for Hezbollah as well as a refuge from Israeli attack. That will all be gone, and Hezbollah's many enemies (mostly in Lebanon but most specifically Israel) will take advantage and try to destroy a weakened Hezbollah.

Hezbollah, with better access to the world (than heavily sanctioned Iran) has long been carrying out terror attacks (mostly against Israel) for Iran. As a result of that, Hezbollah has (over the last two decades) become identified and treated as an international terrorist organization. Israel usually strikes back at the attackers when its citizens are killed by terrorists, so one can expect some action in southern Lebanon. In a case like this Israel will go after senior Hezbollah leaders as well as the people who plan, prepare, and direct the anti-Israel terrorist operations. Israel rarely takes credit for these operations but the hits cannot be missed. Soon, some Hezbollah operatives are going to die.

In the last few years Iran has been desperate to strike back at Israel. That's because Israel has carried out numerous attacks against the Iranian nuclear weapons program. This includes the assassination of at least four Iranian scientists working on that program plus Cyber War attacks on Iranian facilities. There have been other operations outside Iran to foil Iranian smuggling (of military and nuclear weapons components) operations.  Iran wants revenge and has not been getting much.

In Egypt the newly (and fairly) elected government is still locked in a power struggle with the armed forces. The Egyptian military, one of the more corrupt institutions in the country became heroes of the revolution by refusing orders from the dictator (the Mubarak family) to use force to suppress the massive (and largely non-violent) rebellion last year. The grateful revolutionaries agreed to let the army to run the government (via a "military council") until elections could be held and a civilian government established. The military made up the rules as it went along. For example, the generals decided who was eligible to run for office. The military disqualified many prominent Islamic conservatives from running. This resulted in a growing number of anti-military demonstrations. Hundreds were killed or wounded. Parliamentary elections last month gave Islamic conservatives over 60 percent of the seats. Presidential elections resulted in an Islamic conservative politician being elected. The military responded by joining forces with the courts (full of corrupt judges appointed by Mubarak) in an effort to curb the power of a fairly elected government and protect the money and power of the many families that benefitted from decades of corrupt Mubarak rule.

The senior military officers and judges face great danger if they surrender control of the country because many newly elected members of parliament want to go after the numerous corrupt officers, judges, and other officials and replace them with more politically correct men. There would also be prosecutions and confiscations of ill-gotten gains.

 July 19, 2012: In northern Sinai masked men shot dead two Egyptian soldiers at a checkpoint. The majority of Egyptian civilians in Sinai want more security and a crackdown on the growing number of Islamic terrorist groups and armed Bedouin gangs.

July 18, 2012: In Bulgaria a Hezbollah suicide bomber got on a bus full of Israeli tourists and killed five Israelis (plus the bomber and Bulgarian bus driver) and wounded 36 other Israelis. Bus bombings are a favorite tactic of Palestinian terrorists but improved Israeli counter-terror tactics have largely shut down successful Palestinian attacks. There has not been a bus bombing killing Israeli civilians in eight years. Despite that, Palestinian media and government officials regularly hold commemorations of successful past bus bombings and urge young Palestinians to emulate the dead suicide bombers. The Hezbollah suicide bomber in Bulgaria will get the same treatment

In Syria a rebel bomb killed three senior members of the government and armed rebels increased their attacks in the capital. The end of the Syrian dictatorship is getting visibly closer.

July 16, 2012: Two American tourists were released by their Bedouin kidnappers after being held for three days in the Sinai desert. The two were kidnapped in an effort to get the uncle of the kidnapper released from jail (where he was being held on drug smuggling charges). Three days of negotiations resulted in a deal satisfactory to the kidnapper. The Bedouins have long used this tactic to deal with police actions they disagree with. It's a common practice throughout the Middle East when Bedouins have disputes with the more numerous non-nomads.

In Gaza, several dozen Palestinian Christians protested Hamas efforts to forcibly convert Christians to Islam. This has been going on for over a thousand years and is one reason why, until the 1960s, most migrants from Moslem countries were non-Moslems. Islamic law and tradition mandates harsh treatment (and special taxes) for non-Moslems living in countries governed by Islamic law. Even without Islamic rule, there are always plenty of Islamic traditionalists who will make life miserable for non-Moslems.

In Egypt, the courts continued to back orders from the military ruling council that, in effect, reduces the powers of the president and elected parliament. The army is trying to change the law to make the military an autonomous branch of the government and immune to prosecution for corruption (past, present, or future). This is all leading to a second revolution, one that will be about who most soldiers back: their corrupt officers or most Egyptians.

July 14, 2012: Egyptian police arrested three Palestinian men in the Sinai desert and found them carrying $37,000 in cash and false passports. The three said they got out of Sinai via tunnels and were headed to Cairo on business. Most of the Gaza border faces Israel, but the frontier with Egypt has many tunnels that facilitate the smuggling of goods and people to and from Egypt.  The police are paying more attention to Palestinian smugglers because more Islamic terrorists are leaving Gaza and setting up bases in Sinai, from where they make attacks on Egyptian and Israeli targets.

In two separate incidents, Israeli border police confronted armed Palestinians trying to cross the border fence. One Palestinian was killed in each incident.

July 12, 2012: An Israeli air strike in Gaza killed one Palestinian and wounded two others who were seeking to set up a rocket for launch into Israel.

July 9, 2012: A rocket was fired into Israel from Gaza. Israel retaliated by attacking known terrorist targets in Gaza.

July 7, 2012: Israeli tourism set records in the first six months of the year. There were 1.7 million foreign visitors, up six percent from last year. June was up 11 percent over June 2011.

Pentagon: Bulgaria terror attack bears hallmarks of Hezbollah

U.S. Defense Department says it has yet to conclude who is behind Burgas bombing on Israelis, which killed seven and wounded 37; Netanyahu says Iran-backed Hezbollah responsible for attack.

 A truck carrying the bus that was damaged in Wednesday’s terrorist attack on July 19, 2012.

A suicide bombing that killed Israeli tourists in Bulgaria this week bore hallmarks of Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants but the U.S. Defense Department has not yet concluded who was behind it, a Pentagon spokesman said on Friday.

The attack on a bus carrying Israelis at a Bulgarian airport, "does bear the hallmarks of Hezbollah," George Little, the Pentagon press secretary, told reporters.

Bulgaria's interior minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, said earlier in the day that the attacker, who killed himself and six others, was a foreign national. Sofia was investigating with the help of foreign intelligence services, he said.

Little turned aside a request to characterize the signs of an Hezbollah attack or how it could be distinguished from one by, for instance, al-Qaida, which is not linked to Iran.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Hezbollah militants of carrying out the bombing Wednesday at Burgas airport, a popular gateway for tourists visiting Bulgaria's Black Sea coast. Iran has denied any involvement.

Bus bomber was not Bulgarian, says minister

The coffin of the five Israelis who were killed during the terror attack on a tour bus in Burgas, Bulgaria after their arrival at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv on July 20, 2012. A suicide bomber carried out an attack that killed six people in a bus transporting Israeli tourists in Bulgaria, the country's interior minister. AFP PHOTO/JACK GUEZ

The man who blew up a bus carrying Israeli tourists at a Bulgarian airport, killing himself and six others, was not Bulgarian, the country's interior minister said on Friday.

Israel has accused Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants of carrying out Wednesday's attack at Burgas airport, a popular gateway for tourists visiting the Black Sea coast. Iran has denied having any involvement.

"We are talking about a person that is not a Bulgarian citizen," Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov told a news conference. "We are exchanging information with our Israeli colleagues and the other services."

Investigators said they managed to obtain DNA samples from the fingers of the bomber and were checking databases in an attempt to identify him. Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borisov told parliament he hoped to pin down who the bomber was in three or four days.

The tourists had arrived in Bulgaria on a charter flight from Israel and were on the bus in the airport car park when the blast tore through the vehicle.

Israel names five victims of Bulgaria terror attack

The names of the five Israelis killed in a suicide bombing in Bulgaria were released Thursday, after Israeli authorities had confirmed their identification and informed the families.

 The names of those killed are Maor Harush, 24, and Elior Price, 25, from Acre; Itzik Colangi, 28, and Amir Menashe, 28, from Petah Tikva; Kochava Shriki, 42, from Rishon Letzion. The sixth victim was the Bulgarian bus driver, Mustafa Kyosov, 36.

Friends and relatives visiting the families of Harush and Price in Acre said that the two were "friends in their life and in their death." On Wednesday, the two boarded the flight along with another friend, Daniel Fahima, who was seriously wounded in the attack. The three were planning on taking a six-day vacation and were expected to return to Israel next week on Monday.

Dudu Hazan, a close friend of the three, said Harush joined the two at the last minute."Something was not right between them, so Meir and Daniel pressed Elior and he agreed to go with them. In the evening before the flight the three were sitting together discussing the expected vacation. They were together all the time, especially Meir and Elior. They were close friends since they were ten, and fate had decided that they will end their lives together."

Maxim Price, Elior's uncle, said that his nephew was working as a marketing manager in the family business. The uncle spoke of how they lost hope to find them alive. "We had the feeling that they would call any minute. They were considered missing, but to the last minute we were wishing they are well, we just couldn't grasp that they will no longer be with us. Unfortunately, the next day, at five in the morning, a forensics team arrived and asked us for blood samples to use for identification. At that moment everyone realized that it's lost." Since the family received the news, friends, family and municipal social workers arrived at the house.

Colangi was traveling to Burgas with his wife to celebrate his birthday. The couple has a 4-month-old daughter they left at home. His wife Galit was seriously wounded and is still hospitalized in Bulgaria's capital, Sofia. Relatives noted that Galit did not want to go on vacation while leaving her daughter at home. Colangi's sister, Yael, said that his family – wife and daughter – were the most important thing in his life.

Menashe was a friend of Colangi. His wife Racheli was lightly wounded during the attack. Their 10-month-old son stayed behind at home.

Shriki took the flight to Burgas with her husband Itzik. Her family said that he was wounded, and only on arrival to Israel he discovered that his wife was killed in the blast. 

The Bulgaria terrorist attack: News and analysis

Following Wednesday’s suicide bombing targeting Israeli tourists in Burgas, Bulgaria, Haaretz provides a comprehensive look at the Israeli government and international response to the tragic event.

 An Israeli survivor  is transported on a wheelchair to an ambulance as she leaves a hospital in the city of Burgas, some 400km (249 miles) east of Sofia July 19, 2012, en route to Israel.

A suicide bomber struck an Israeli tour bus on Wednesday, July 18th 2012 in the Burgas airport in Bulgaria. Seven people were killed and 33 wounded in the bombing, which took place on the 18th anniversary of a terror attack on a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed the attack on Iran. Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borisov promised full cooperation in investigating the tragedy, adding that it was not only an attack on Israel but also on Bulgaria.

Wednesday's incident began at 4:45 P.M., when an Air Burgas charter flight from Israel landed at the local airport in Burgas. The passengers – 151 Israelis and three foreign nationals – then boarded buses to their hotels along the Black Sea coast. At about 5:30 P.M., a bomb went off in one of the buses, damaging two other buses that were parked nearby.

The bombing was committed by a suicide bomber, a senior official in the Israeli Foreign Ministry told Haaretz on Thursday. Seven people were killed, five of them Israeli tourists, one of them the Bulgarian bus driver, with authorities estimating that the seventh may have been the terrorist who perpetrated the attack. The body suspected as belonging to the terrorist had a U.S. driver's license issued in Michigan – apparently a fake.

Amos Harel notes that the Israeli government, supported by detailed intelligence, was quick to point the finger at Iran. If this is true, he writes, the man behind the attack in Burgas would be Gen. Qassem Suleimani, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force, who operates the Guards' overseas operations and is assisted by Hezbollah.

Chemi Shalev reports that former U.S. Ambassador to the UN John Bolton believes that Israel is poised to launch a direct attack on Iran in the wake of the tragic incident. Appearing on Fox News, Bolton said that Netanyahu's unequivocal accusation that Iran is responsible for the attack "gives every indication" that such a retaliatory attack is in offing.

Amir Oren believes Netanyahu wants to turn the Israeli intelligence failure over Bulgaria into an excuse to strike Iran. Israel’s failure to predict or foil the attack was a failure of Israeli intelligence, he writes. But now Netanyahu is attempting to turn this failure into an accomplishment. Two hours after the attack, he was saying that “all signs lead to Iran.”

Chemi Shalev writes that for Israelis, the image of a black, burned out passenger bus is a dreaded icon of their most fearful days. After an eight-year lull since the last Israeli bus was bombed in Be'er Sheva in 2004, that terrifying token reappeared yesterday in Burgas, Bulgaria, in a terrorist incident that immediately conjured those dark days of the Second Intifada.

Speaking to Army Radio, former National Security Adviser Uzi Arad criticized Israel's general strategy in dealing with the Iranian threat and added that the Bulgaria bombing was Hezbollah and Iran retaliating against Israel. Israel was the initiator when it chose to target Hezbollah's military chief Imad Mughniye in 2008, putting Iran on the defense, said Arad.

Israel is involved in both the treatment of the wounded and in the investigation of the attack. The 34 wounded were transferred from the Burgas hospital to the nearby airport, where Israel Air Force transport planes were waiting, and took off shortly after. Two Israeli planes carrying medical staff, a casualty-identification team, a police forensic team and diplomatic staff were dispatched to the country. A team of eight Israeli forensic experts was dispatched to Bulgaria as well, given the task of identifying the victims and preparing the bodies for their return to Israel.

Barak Ravid says that after the terror attack comes the diplomatic campaign. Israel and Bulgaria are working with the U.S. and other countries to draft a condemnation of the Burgas terror attack for the UN Security Council, say sources in the Foreign Ministry.

Since the attack, several condemnations have been issued, including one from U.S. President Barak Obama, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and EU foreign minister and the French foreign ministry.

On Thursday, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov said that he thought "it is wrong and a mistake to point fingers at this stage of the investigation at any country or organization,” adding, "We are only in the beginning of the investigation and it is wrong to jump to conclusions," he added.

Bulgaria, US, Israel to Jointly Investigate Burgas Bus Bombing

US Ambassador to Bulgaria James Warlick has announced that the governments of Bulgaria, Israel and the US will cooperate in the investigation of the July 18 terror attack in Burgas and pool efforts to prevent such incidents from recurring.

A bus carrying Israeli tourists exploded Wednesday afternoon at the airport of the Bulgarian resort city, killing at least seven people and wounding more than 32.

Five people died at the site of the explosion and the injured were taken to hospital.

On Thursday, the US Ambassador took part in a memorial service at the Sofia Synagogue for the victims of the bombing.

The diplomat condemned the attack and expressed condolences to the relatives of the victims.

He refused to comment on Iran's involvement in the deadly blast.

Thursday's memorial service was also attended by Maxim Benvenisti, Chair of the Shalom Organization of Jews in Bulgaria, who said that the attack had been aimed at destabilizing democracy in the country.

Without going into details, Benvenisti argued that the aim of the bomb attack had been to spoil Bulgaria – Israel relations.

US Ambassador to Bulgaria, James Warlick, Burgas, Israeli tourists, Burgas airport, terror attack, investigation