Diplomats targeted, Israel blames Iran
A member of the Israel embassy was targeted in India.
Israel accused arch-enemies Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah of
being behind twin bomb attacks that targeted embassy staff in India and Georgia today, wounding four people. Tehran denied involvement in the
incidents, which amplified tensions between two countries already at
loggerheads over Iran's nuclear programme. Hezbollah made
no comment. Police in the Indian capital New Delhi said a bomb wrecked a car carrying
an embassy official as she was going to pick up her children from school. The
woman needed surgery to remove shrapnel but her life was not in danger,
officials said. Her driver and two passers-by suffered lesser injuries. Israeli
officials said an attempt to bomb an embassy car in the Georgian capital Tbilisi failed. The device was defused. Israel had put its foreign missions on
high alert ahead of the fourth anniversary this past Monday of the
assassination in Syria of the military mastermind of
Hezbollah, Imad Moughniyeh - an attack widely assumed to be the work of Israeli
agents. Israel is believed to be also locked in a
wider covert war with Iran, whose nuclear programme has been
beset by apparent sabotage, including the unclaimed killings of several Iranian
nuclear scientists, most recently in January. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
blamed both Iran and Hezbollah, accusing them of
responsibility for a string of recent attempted attacks in countries as far
apart as Thailand and Azerbaijan.” Iran and its proxy Hezbollah are behind
each of these attacks," said Netanyahu, who dismisses Iran denials that it is trying to
develop a nuclear weapon. "We will continue to take strong and systematic,
yet patient, action against the international terrorism that originates in Iran.” Iranian Foreign Ministry
spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast rejected Netanyahu's accusation, calling it
"psychological warfare against Iran”.” We condemn any terrorist action
and the world knows that Iran is the biggest victim of terrorism,"
Mehmanparast was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency. The New Delhi blast took place some 500 metres
from the official residence of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.B.K. Gupta,
the New
Delhi police commissioner, said a witness had seen a motorcyclist stick a
device to the back of the car, which had diplomatic registration plates.” The
eyewitness ... says it (was) some kind of magnetic device. As soon as the
motorcycle moved away a good distance from the car, the car blew up and it
caught fire," said Gupta. The Iranian scientist killed in Tehran last month died in a similar such
attack by a motorcycle bomber who attached a device to his car. No one has
claimed responsibility for that, although Iran was quick to accuse agents of Israel and its US ally. Thailand said last month its police had
arrested a Lebanese man linked to Hezbollah and he later led them to a
warehouse stocked with bomb-making materials. Also last month, authorities in Azerbaijan arrested two people suspected of plotting
to attack Israel's ambassador and a local rabbi.
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