Smoke rising from Burgas airport terminal following bus explosion, July 18, 2012.
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Unconfirmed, trusted reports that a female suicide bomber placed herself between two buses of Israeli youths just arrived in the seaside resort of Burgas, Bulgaria and triggered a blast that ignited the buses as fuel. Casualties are heavy, up to 7 KIA reports, unconfirmed more than two dozen wounded. PM Netanyahu spoke quickly afterward that Iran is responsible and that there will be retaliation. This dark turn happened within hours of the suicide bombing report from Damascus that killed 3 mainstays of the Assad regime, the iron hand brother-in-law Shwkat (married to Assad's iron maiden sister, Bushra); and the present and former Defense Ministers, Dawoud Rajha and Hassan Turkmani. The blast took place during what is described as a high level security meeting following earlier attacks in Damascus. (Report that the bomber was a trusted Sunni bodyguard who was turned by his family.) Unconfirmed rumours propose that Bashar Assad was also wounded and has been flown to the Russian occupied naval base of Lataikia. Waiting on confirmation. The Bulgaria attack, the Damascus attack, have many links to Tehran and Riyadh, the two major opponents in the Middle East using Syria as a surrogate battlefield. Am told that the Israeli retaliation will scramble the Damascus spiral. Mention that Jerusalem Post reminds that today, July 18, is the 18th commemoration of the Hizballah/Iran launched murder bomb on the Jewish center in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Also mention that the Burgas casualties are said to be children, and the next two days will be grim witness of the burials in Israel by devastated parents who kissed their children goodbye this morning at Ben Gurion for a happy holiday on the Black Sea. Reminds of the old proverb from British (1932) PM Stanley Baldwin, "The bomber will always gets through." Not always, as the RAF proved, but often, and today the bombers got through. Nothing was settled; a deal is now coiled. (Update, Thursday 19: below from NYT, from Burgas airport security cameras, identifying a tall, long-haired male carrying a large, rectangular backpack, who is identified as the suicide bomber. Am asking for clairity, but the long hair suggests why the first identification was a female suicide bomber. The NYT blog details that the man was carrying a fake Michigan driver's license. More to come on that fake ID and the identity of the killer: tentatively and unconfirmed reported as a GITMO detainee, Swedish national Mehdi Ghezali. released in 2004 to Sweden.)