Burgas bombing
Burgas bombingIsrael news photo: Flash 90

Bulgarian investigators on Friday re-enacted a July 2012 bomb attack blamed by Sofia on Hizbullah that killed five Israelis, AFP reported.

The investigators blew up two old buses and 11 silicon mannequins in a controlled explosion as part of the re-enactment.

The aim was "to provide information and important evidence on the type and quantity of explosive used" in the attack at Burgas airport on the Black Sea, chief investigator Boyko Naydenov said, according to AFP.

As in the real blast, the explosion tore apart a mannequin representing the bomber, spreading body parts over the test area in Ihtiman, 45 miles southeast of Sofia. This confirmed the hypothesis that the terrorist was standing next to one of the bus's luggage compartments when the device went off, Naydenov said.

"The results are more than satisfactory," he said. The silicon head of the bomber was found "practically at the same distance and direction from the bus."

Investigators believe that the bomber, who has not been identified despite police having his DNA and fingerprints, did not intend to die in the attack but planned to detonate the bomb from afar.

In July, Israel immediately blamed Iran and its terrorist proxy Hizbullah, but it took until February for the Bulgarian government to also point the finger at the Lebanese Shiite terror movement.

It remains unclear, however, how the attack in Bulgaria, a member of the European Union whose Black Sea resorts are popular with Israeli tourists, was organized.

Bulgaria's announcement that Hizbullah was being the attack in Burgas led to renewed calls from Washington and Israel on the 27-nation European Union to designate the group a "terrorist" organization.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged the EU to follow Washington's lead by designating Hizbullah as terrorists in a move that will notably lead to a crackdown on its fund-raising activities.

Shortly after the Burgas bombing, the EU decided not to list Hizbullah as a terrorist group.

Cypriot Foreign Minister Gujarat Cossack-Marcolis said at the time that "there is no consensus on the issue, because Hizbullah also has an active political arm."

(Arutz Sheva’s North American Desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)