TEL AVIV - The suicide bomber who killed five Israelis and their Bulgarian driver was a foreigner, authorities in Sofia said Friday.
Interior Minister Tsevetan Tsetanov told a press conference in Sofia that the bomber, who also died in Wednesday's blast at Burgas airport, had entered Bulgaria more than a week earlier.
Police in Bulgaria now believe the bomber spent at least four days in the Black Sea town of Burgas before his attack on a tourist bus.
The Interior Ministry said experts from the United States, Switzerland and France were set to help Bulgaria investigate the bombing as Interpol deploys an Incident Response Team to the country.
In Israel, meanwhile, funerals were held for the victims of the bombing.
Itzik Colgani, 28, was laid to rest in his hometown of Petah Tikva, east of Tel Aviv. His wife, Gilat, was seriously injured and was told of his death only Friday morning. Doctors did not let her attend the funeral.
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"I cannot believe we are saying goodbye to you. The extent of the horror is indescribable - you went for a vacation and came back in a coffin," Colgani's brother-in-law, Yair, said at the graveside.
The couple's 4-month-old baby had been left in the care of grandparents while they were intending to enjoy a long weekend away in Bulgaria with Amir Menashe, Itzik Colgani's childhood friend, who also was killed; and his wife, Natalie, who was injured.
Amir Menashe, 28, was buried in Petah Tikva after Colgani. A distraught Natalie Menashe attended the funeral.
Maor Harush, 25, was laid to rest near his hometown of Acre, on Israel's northern coast. His friend, Elior Preiss, 26, who also died in Burgas, was buried in the same place later in the day. They had gone to Bulgaria with a third companion, who survived but was seriously injured.
Kochava Shriki, 44, was buried in Rishon LeZion, south of Tel Aviv. Before leaving for Burgas, she had told her family that she was pregnant for the first time, after years of fertility treatment.
Her husband, Yitzhak, injured in the bombing, had searched for her among the wreckage of the explosion, and in the hospital in Bulgaria, and learned of her death on Thursday.
The coffins of the five arrived in Israel shortly after midnight, transported from Bulgaria by an Israel air force plane.
The caskets, each shrouded in an Israeli flag, were carried from the airplane by soldiers and placed on black-draped stands, while a military chaplain recited psalms.
