Bombs target Israeli diplomats in India, Georgia; 2 injured

[Outonowhere]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/bombs-target-israeli-diplomats-in-india-georgia-2-injured/2012/02/13/gIQA2kDlAR_print.html

By Simon Denyer and Joel Greenberg, Updated: Monday, February 13, 9:20 AM

NEW DELHI ? The wife of an Israeli diplomat in New Delhi and her driver were injured Monday when the car they were traveling in was bombed, officials said. A second bomb was defused outside the Israeli Embassy in Tbilisi, Georgia, about the same time.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately blamed Iran, which has vowed revenge for the recent assassinations of several scientists involved in Iran?s nuclear program. Hezbollah, which receives funding and strong support from Iran, also had promised to avenge the assassination of one of its leaders, Imad Moughniyeh, who was killed in a car bombing in Damascus on Feb. 12, 2008.

Ticking off places where he said recent attacks on Jews and Israelis had been thwarted, including Azerbaijan and Thailand, Netanyahu accused Iran of orchestrating the attempts and called the government in Tehran ?the greatest exporter of terror in the world.?

?In all these cases,? Netanyahu said, ?the elements behind the attacks were Iran and its proxy, Hezbollah.?

Netanyahu offered no details of the attempts he cited, or specific evidence for his claim. But Israel had put its foreign missions on high alert in recent days, because of the anniversary of Moughniyeh?s death.

Both the New Delhi attack and the discovery of the bomb in Tbilisi happened about the same time Monday ? 3:20 p.m. in New Delhi and 1:50 p.m. in Tiblisi (4:50 a.m. in Washington).

New Delhi police commissioner Brajesh Kumar Gupta said the wife of the diplomat ?was going to pick up her children at the American embassy school? when a person on a motorcycle approached her vehicle and affixed a magnetic bomb to its rear side.

?A mild explosion soon took place and the car caught fire,? Gupta told reporters at a news conference.

Israeli officials identified the injured woman as the wife of Israel?s defense representative in New Delhi. Gupta said she was conscious and had been hospitalized in stable condition. Her driver, as well as two people in a nearby car, sustained minor injuries, Gupta said.

Joji Philip Thomas, an editor with an Indian publication called the Economic Times, posted on Twitter that he was behind the car when the bomb detonated. Thomas said he saw a female passenger thrown from the vehicle. He posted a photograph of the car in flames, its back blown out.

The area, not far from the Indian prime minister?s residence, was swiftly cordoned off, and Israeli officials could be seen conferring with police.

In Tbilisi, capital of the former Soviet republic of Georgia, a grenade was found attached to the car used by the Israeli ambassador, Yitzhak Gerberg, Real-TV reported. The car belonged to the embassy driver, not the embassy, said Shota Khizanishvili, a spokesman for the Georgian Interior Ministry.

The grenade was discovered after the driver, identified as Roman Khachaturyan, noticed an object attached to the bottom of the car with duct tape, the local news report said. Khachaturyan called police, who summoned explosive experts to detonate it under controlled conditions.

?There was one attempted attack, and one successful, as it were,? Paul Hirschson, a spokesman for Israel?s foreign ministry, told the Reuters news agency.

Iran has openly threatened retaliation for the recent killings of its nuclear scientists, and has blamed the assassinations on both Israel and the United States. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has categorically denied any United States involvement; Israeli officials have refused to comment.

?We will never disregard punishment for the individuals who committed this crime and the elements behind its scene,? Iran?s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, wrote in a public letter of condolence.

Iranian Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi said the United States, Britain and the Mossad, Israel?s spy service, ?will face the consequences of this action. The Islamic Republic of Iran will give them a biting answer.?

The attack in New Delhi bore eerie similarities to the Jan. 11 killing of Iranian nuclear chemist Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan, a 32-year-old deputy head of procurement at the Natanz enrichment facility. The scientist was killed in an explosion after an unknown assailant on a motorcycle slapped a magnetic bomb on his car as he commuted to work.

Iran?s government did not respond directly to Netanyahu?s accusation on Monday.

?If Iran would plan something like that we would certainly not announce it,? said Hamid-Reza Tarraghi, a politician close to Iran?s supreme leader. ?We have called for support of the resistance against Israel, so it is possible cores of resistance are formed across the world. But I have no idea who is behind the attack in India.?

Greenberg reported from Jerusalem. Correspondents Thomas Erdbrink in Tehran and Kathy Lally in Moscow contributed to this report.

? The Washington Post Company

Personally I view these kinda like the "used car salesman" hired by Iran incident here in the States.  Why would a country so in fear for its survival or with as great a fervor to destroy a nation muck up so often and so bad?

[EJR914]

It doesn't make sense.

[Outonowhere]

It doesn't make sense.

And isn't the whole bomb on the car from a motorbike rider someone else's MO?  If the goal was to kill the dignitaries wife, why was the bomb planted in such a place where a "kill" was not likely?  And why use a "mild" explosive when you are trying to make a statement other than to make one without causing any casualties on one side.

Netanyahu offered no details of the attempts he cited, or specific evidence for his claim.

The grenade was discovered after the driver, identified as Roman Khachaturyan, noticed an object attached to the bottom of the car with duct tape, the local news report said. Khachaturyan called police, who summoned explosive experts to detonate it under controlled conditions.