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Thursday, July 19, 2012

IAF Preparing to Bring Attack Survivors Home from Bulgaria

Rescue Mission IAF C-130 Hercules aircraft in Burgas

Two IAF aircraft land in Bulgaria to ensure terror victims' safe return to Israel. MDA specialists arrive in Sofia to evaluate those seriously injured; ZAKA identification process ongoing


Burgas – Two IAF C-130 Hercules aircraft landed in Burgas, Bulgaria, Thursday morning, in order to airlift the Israelis injured in Wednesday's terror attack back to Israel.

Seven people were killed, five of them Israelis, and 34 people were injured, two of them seriously, when a blast tore through a bus shuttling Israeli tourists in the terminal of Sarafovo Airport.

A third plane, carrying Magen David Adom specialists, landed in Sofia, in order to evaluate the condition of the Israelis seriously hurt in the attack and ensure that they can be flown back to Israel.

Health Ministry sources said that the majority of Israelis are scheduled to land in Israel by Thursday afternoon.

The fatalities' identification process, headed by ZAKA, is ongoing.

A military source on the mission told that it includes military medical personnel, members of the Air Force 669 Search and Rescue Unit, Home Front Command officers and a cadre of IDF officers.

"We are working with MDA officials on the ground in order to facilitate the rapid transfer of the wounded to the planes and then to Israel," he said.

The Bulgarian government will provide a private plane that will carry about 70 Israelis who were unharmed, back to Israel.

Dozens of Israelis who were lightly wounded in the blast, or luckily escaped injury, have been waiting at the airport since the attack, seeking to go back to Israel.

Sarafovo Airport closed immediately after the attack. Elsewhere in Bulgaria, flights headed to Israel were canceled or delayed as well.

Following the attack, the Shin Ben has temporarily suspended all flights bound for Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia, Greece, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey and Azerbaijan.

Meanwhile, Bulgaria's Interior Ministry said that security measures in and around hotels where Israeli tourists are staying have been stepped up following the terror attack.

Police presence in the district of Burgas has also been beefed up.

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