Bus explosion outside of Burgas Airport. Photo: http://www.dnevnik.bg/.

The man responsible for carrying out Wednesday’s deadly terrorist attack against Israeli tourists in Bulgaria was working on behalf of Hezbollah, the Lebanese terrorist group, according to Israel’s Prime Minister and an unidentified American official quoted in the New York Times.

While reports began to circulate that the man had been identified as Mehdi Ghezali, a former detainee at Guantanamo Bay, American, Bulgarian, and Swedish officials all denied the accuracy of these reports.  One of the American officials who spoke with the Times said the terrorist was “acting under broad guidance” from Hezbollah to attack Israelis when “opportunities presented themselves.”

The U.S. official stated that Wednesday’s attack was a “tit for tat”, a retaliation for assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists in recent years.  Iran has blamed Israel for the killings of multiple nuclear technicians, while Israel has chosen to neither confirm or deny these accusations.

Bulgarian authorities are using the bomber’s DNA in an attempt to identify him, using databases from around the world.

“We are talking about a person that is not a Bulgarian citizen,” said Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov. “We are exchanging information with our Israeli colleagues and the other services.”

For its part, Russia Today – the state funded Russian news outlet – ran a story entitled “Burgas attack: A false flag operation?”.  Citing an “independent American Journalist” named Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich, the article infers that Israel carried out Wednesday’s attack in order to “play victim” and place increasing international pressure on both Hezbollah and Iran.