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Israel's Diplomat Injured in Suspicious Car Blast in Delhi

By News Desk
Updated Monday, 13 February 2012 21:02:55 - IST (UTC +5:30)


New Delhi: An Israeli diplomat injured in a suspected revenge attack has been admitted to a private hospital here today. The diplomat was in embassy’s official car, when it caught fire after an explosion.
Doctors at the Primus Hospital treating 42-year-old Ms Tal said she has been put in the ICU but did not give any details about her condition.
The driver of the Car had told the investigators that he had sent the Israeli embassy official to the mission in an auto rickshaw. Israel's Foreign Ministry said an attempted car bombing in Georgia was thwarted when the device was discovered before it went off. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
However Israel immediately moved to accuse Iran. In a purely political statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran and its "protégé" Hezbollah of carrying out the twin bomb attacks on Israeli diplomats in India and Georgia. Addressing lawmakers of his Likud Party, Netanyahu said, "In all these cases, the elements behind these attacks were Iran and its protégé Hezbollah."
The explosion in Delhi tore through a diplomat's car, Israeli officials said. Officials said the driver and a diplomat's wife were injured.
The explosion took place in the late afternoon close to the embassy, said embassy spokesman David Goldfarb. Television footage showed a charred minivan with blue diplomatic plates, its rear door apparently blown out.
According to initial investigations, two motorcycle borne youth trailed the Israeli Embassy vehicle on Aurangzeb Road in the high security zone, not far from Prime Minister's residence, and allegedly placed "something" in the rear of the car when it stopped at a traffic signal. Minutes later, there was an explosion and the Toyota Innova bearing number 109-CD-35 went up in flames.
Three people including the Administrative Attaché’s wife received injuries in the incident at 3.15 pm near a petrol station, located 500 meters from the 7-Race Course Road official residence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Delhi Police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat said two Israeli embassy employees were injured in the incident. "We have rushed bomb disposal squad to the spot. We are investigating the cause of fire," he said.
An eyewitness Ranvir Singh, who is the owner of a nearby petrol pump, said he heard a loud noise following which he rushed to the spot.
"I was at my petrol pump. I heard a loud noise. I rushed to the spot and found a car in blaze. A fire tender from the nearby Air Force station was at the spot dousing the flame," Singh said. Police said four cars were damaged in the incident.
There were conflicting versions of the incident with initial reports suggesting that the CNG cylinder kept at the back of the embassy's vehicle burst soon after it was re-filled at a nearby petrol station. Fire brigade officials said the car caught fire and some reports also said there was a collision with another car. According to eyewitnesses, the car had filled CNG at a petrol station and was on its way to the Embassy when the blast took place.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor, however, would not discuss who was injured nor the extent of the injuries because it was a security matter. ''We are looking into the incident and cooperation with local security forces is excellent,'' Palmor said from Israel.
Asked if there was a connection between today's explosion and the Georgia incident, the spokesperson said, "We don't have any information so far. We don't know."
Medical Superintendent of Ram Manohar Lohia hospital, Dr T S Sidhu said, "Three people with splinter injuries have been brought. They will be discharged soon." These all three are Indians were identified as Manoj Sharma, 40, Arun Sharma, 40 and Manjeet Singh, 75. It is not clear how these three got injured.
A post blast team of the National Security Guard (NSG) was called in from Manesar to probe the incident.
Authorities in the former Soviet republic of Georgia said an explosive device was planted on the car of a driver for the Israeli Embassy. Shota Utiashvili, spokesman for the Georgian Interior Ministry, said the driver noticed a package attached to his car's undercarriage on Monday and called police.
Police found a grenade in the package and it was defused, Utiashvili said. He did not specify where the car was parked when the device was discovered.
There was no immediate comment from Iran. But speculation will undoubtedly be raised over the possibility of Iranian-linked payback for assassinations on nuclear scientists and other covert plots that Tehran has blamed on Israel's spy agency Mossad and Western allies.
Last month, a director of Iran's main uranium enrichment site was killed in a blast from a magnetic bomb placed on his car. The official, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, was at least the fifth member of Iran's scientific community killed in apparent targeted attacks in the past two years.
Iran accused Israel of being behind the attacks. Later, Iran's official news agency IRNA said it had ``evidence'' of alleged U.S. and British involvement in the Roshan killing.
In a signal that Iran could strike back for Roshan's killing, Gen. Masoud Jazayeri, the spokesman for Iran's Joint Armed Forces Staff, was quoted by the semiofficial ISNA news agency last month as saying that Tehran was ''reviewing the punishment'' of ''behind-the-scene elements'' involved in the assassination.
''Iran's response will be a tormenting one for supporters of state terrorism,'' he said, without elaborating. ``The enemies of the Iranian nation, especially the United States, Britain and the Zionist regime, or Israel, have to be held responsible for their activities.''
Iran also has blamed the U.S. and allies for a sophisticated computer virus, known as Stuxnet, that was programmed to disrupt the centrifuges used in uranium enrichment. Iran said the virus was detected in its systems, but claimed no serious setbacks occurred.
Netanyahu said other attacks in recent months in Azerbaijan, Thailand and elsewhere were thwarted.
Earlier, reacting to the incidents, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman has said that his country "will not allow terrorism to affect its agenda".
"It just shows that Israel and its citizens face terror inside and outside of Israel," Liberman said. "We deal with it every day. We know how to identify exactly who is responsible for the attack and who carried it out," he added in an apparent reference to Lebanese Shi'ite faction Hezbollah.
"We will not allow this to affect our agenda," he asserted. Israel's Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Yigal Palmor, confirmed the attack saying that the ministry was "looking into the incident and cooperation with local security forces is excellent".
The incident in New Delhi comes a day after the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Hezbollah deputy leader, Imad Mughniyah, who was killed in a car bomb attack.
Israel's bureau of counter-terrorism has been constantly warning its citizens and missions abroad around the time of Mughniyeh's death anniversary of a possible attack. (Agencies)

Tags: News Desk Israel diplomat, injured, car exploded, New Delhi, Georgia, Iran,

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