A car belonging to the Israeli embassy was gutted in fire after an explosion occurred in it on Monday around 3.15 pm. Police said that four people were injured in the blast, including a woman diplomat.
The incident took place near Aurangzeb Road crossing, not far from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's residence. Four other cars were damaged in the explosion. Police said that it was not immediately clear whether the incident was a terror attack or a CNG explosion.
Home Ministry reports said that two motorcycle-borne youths allegedly placed “something” in the rear of the car when it stopped at a traffic signal on Aurangzeb Road.
Minutes later, there was an explosion and the Toyota Innova carrying Israel Embassy Attache Tal went up in flames. Delhi Police admitted that reports of youths placing something suspicious in the rear of the diplomat's car were not recorded in the CCTV even though the blast occurred in a high security area. “We do not have CCTV footage of the incident. All the details are based on eyewitness accounts,” said Delhi police spokesman Rajesh Bhagat.
Doctors attending the woman at Primus Hospital said that Tal Yehoshua Koren has suffered multiple injuries. “She is likely to undergo a spine surgery,” Dr N D Khurana, medical superintendent of the private hospital said. Koren is the wife of the defence attache in the embassy and an employee. The others injured are her driver Manoj Sharma, 42, and two other people Arun Sharma and Manjeet Singh who were travelling in another car.
“There was an explosion in an Israeli diplomat’s car but we don't know how it happened. We are in touch with the local authorities,” said Israeli embassy spokesman David Goldfarb. A team of experts from the Central Forensic Sciences Laboratory rushed to the blast site to investigate and collect evidence.
An indication that the blast in Delhi could be part of targeted attacks on Israeli staff came when a Foreign Ministry spokesman said that in Jerusalem that there have been incidents in which embassy staff were targeted in Tbilisi and New Delhi.
Even as the Delhi police launched a probe into the car blast here, media reports in Israel speculated that the explosion in Delhi coincided with an attack on the Israeli embassy in Georgia and occurred on the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Hezbollah’s military commander.
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The explosion Monday of a device attached to an Israeli Embassy van in New Delhi and the discovery and safe detonation of another such device found on an embassy car in Tbilisi, Georgia, led quickly to a round of fingerpointing between Israel and Iran.
Four people were wounded in the van explosion, which occurred near the Israeli mission in New Delhi, officials said.
The other bomb, found on an embassy car in Tbilisi, Georgia, was detonated in a controlled explosion with no injuries, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed both incidents on Iran, calling it "the biggest exporter of terror in the world."
Israeli Embassy car detonates in India
"The Israeli government and her security organizations are continuing to operate together with local security services against these acts of terror," Netanyahu said. "We will continue to act in a strong way, systematically and steadfastly."
But Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast blamed Israel, accusing it of having bombed its own embassies in New Delhi and Tbilisi "to tarnish Iran's friendly ties with the host countries," Iran's state-run Islamic Republic News Agency said. "He brushed aside Israeli accusation on Iranian involvement in the bombing and said that Israel perpetrated the terrorist actions to launch psychological warfare against Iran," IRNA reported.
"Iran condemns terrorism in strongest term and Iran has been the victim of terrorism," Mehmanparast said.
Police in India identified one of the wounded there as Tal Yehoshua Coren, the wife of an Israeli Defense Ministry employee. A doctor in India told reporters she was in critical but stable condition in a hospital.
Also wounded in New Delhi was the Indian driver of the car, said Syed Akbaruddin, a spokesman for the Indian Ministry of External Affairs. He said both victims were being treated and "are OK." Two others in a vehicle next to the van sustained minor injuries, according to B.K. Gupta, an Indian police official.
Akbaruddin said the car was about 500 meters (1,640 feet) from the Israeli mission at the time.
A witness told CNN there was a "huge explosion sound" and he later saw a foreign woman and the Indian driver being removed from the car.
In a written statement, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the attacks. "The United States places a high priority on the safety and security of diplomatic personnel around the world, and we stand ready to assist with any investigation of these cowardly actions," she said.
Israeli Foreign Ministry personnel based overseas have been on alert in recent weeks to the heightened possibility of attacks at Israeli facilities by Hezbollah, the Lebanese Muslim militant group and political party.
Sunday marked the fourth anniversary of the death of Hezbollah leader Imad Mugniyah in a car bombing in Damascus, Syria. Hezbollah holds Israel responsible for his death and has vowed revenge.
Both Netanyahu and Michael Herzog, former chief of staff to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, noted two recent attempted attacks on Israeli citizens in Thailand and Azerbaijan. The Israeli government issued a travel advisory this year for citizens traveling to Thailand after Thai security officials arrested at least one Hezbollah-affiliated man connected with a planned attack in the country.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said this month that Iran would support any nation or group that stands up against Israel. He said Iran doesn't interfere in other nations but has aided such militant groups as Hamas and Hezbollah in conflicts with Israel in Gaza and Lebanon.
"Taken together, maybe we are witnessing an Iranian attack against Israeli representation across the world," Herzog said of Monday's incidents and the thwarted bombings in Thailand and Azerbaijan.
The modus operandi is not new. Last month, a mysterious explosion in Iran killed a man identified as a nuclear scientist -- the third such killing in the past two years in which someone placed a bomb on or under a scientist's car. A fourth survived an assassination attempt.
The United States and Israel oppose Iran's nuclear program, although numerous countries have expressed concern as well. Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful, civilian energy purposes.
Iranian officials, on state-run media, blame Israel and the United States.
Clinton has denied "any United States involvement in any kind of act of violence inside Iran."
While Israel generally refuses to comment on accusations and speculation, Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces, said on his Facebook page, "I have no idea who targeted the Iranian scientist but I certainly don't shed a tear."
With no one claiming responsibility, the killings remain shrouded in mystery. Iran experts contacted last month by CNN could only speculate.
"The most likely contender among people who are following this is that the Israelis are doing it, possibly in cooperation with the Iranian mujahedeen," said Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian-American Council and author of the book "A Single Roll of the Dice: Obama's Diplomacy with Iran."
"There's almost no downside for Israel," he said. The killings "take out nuclear assets and embarrass Iran" by showing that the regime can't prevent such attacks, Parsi said. And "if Iran retaliates with a violent act, then Israel can point to it as a reason to take military action against the regime."
Michael Rubin, resident scholar with the American Enterprise Institute, agreed that Israeli involvement was the most "plausible" scenario. And Mark Hibbs, senior associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, also said the way the attacks took place "would be consistent" with the possibility of Israel acting with cooperation inside Iran.
Parsi told CNN he does not believe the killings are the work of the United States, and he said they do not match the kind of activity U.S. intelligence would carry out in a country with which there is no declared state of war.
Rubin agreed, and gave a different reason. "Frankly, I don't think the United States has the human intelligence knowledge," he said.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman blames Israel for the bombing and another attempt
- Israel's prime minister blames Iran for both incidents
- The wife of an Israeli defense wing officer and her Indian driver were wounded
- http://www.iranfocus.com/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=24587:iran-denies-role-in-israeli-embassy-attack-envoy&catid=4:iran-general&Itemid=26
Iran denies role in Israeli embassy attack -envoy
TEHRAN, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Iran rejects as "sheer lies" accusations that it was involved in a bomb attack on the Israeli embassy in India, the official IRNA news agency quoted the Islamic Republic's ambassador to New Delhi as saying on Monday."Any terrorist attack is condemned (by Iran) and we strongly reject the untrue comments by an Israeli official," Mehdi Nabizadeh was quoted as saying by IRNA. "These accusations are untrue and sheer lies, like previous times."Bombers targeted staff at Israel's embassies in India and Georgia on Monday, wounding four people, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused arch-enemies Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah of involvement. (Writing by Zahra Hosseinian; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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