Israel says Iran behind India, Georgia attacks - London Free Press

JERUSALEM - Israel accused arch-enemies Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah of being behind twin bomb attacks that targeted embassy staff in India and Georgia on Monday, 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 Sunday 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.

Israeli officials have long made veiled threats to retaliate against Lebanon for any Hezbollah attack on their interests abroad, arguing that as the militia's allies sit in government in Beirut, its actions reflect national policy.

MOTORCYCLE ATTACK

The New Delhi blast took place some 500 metres (yards) 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 U.S. ally.

Israel named the injured woman as Talya Yehoshua Koren, who worked at the embassy and was married to the defence attache.

"She was able to drag herself from the car and is now at the American hospital, where two Israeli doctors are treating her," an Israeli defence ministry spokesman said.

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.

In a Jan. 24 speech, Israel's military chief of staff, Lieutenant-General Benny Gantz, accused Hezbollah of trying to carry out proxy attacks while avoiding direct confrontation. Israel and Hezbollah fought an inconclusive and costly war across the Lebanese border in 2006.

"During this period of time, when our enemies in the north avoid carrying out attacks, fearing a harsh response, we are witnesses to the ongoing attempts by Hezbollah and other hostile entities to execute vicious terror attacks at locations far away from the state of Israel," Gantz said.

"I suggest that no one test our resolve."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a statement, condemned the attacks on Israeli targets: "The scourge of terrorism is an affront to the entire international community," she said. "We stand ready to assist with any investigation."