Explosion in Israel embassy car, 4 injured
Mtoday news / IANS
New Delhi, Feb 13 : A car belonging to the Israeli embassy was gutted after an explosion Monday afternoon in a high-security zone in the Indian capital, not far from the residence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Four people, including an Israeli woman, were injured, police said.
Officials said the fire was from an explosion caused by a "foreign substance attached to the rear of the vehicle".
The Israeli embassy confirmed the incident but refused to give details.
The incident took place at the Safdarjung Road-Aurangzeb Road crossing, not far from the 7, Race Course Road residence of the Indian prime minister.
An alert was sounded in the capital and the government asked foreign missions to be on vigil.
According to an eyewitness, there was an explosion in the Israeli embassy’s Toyota Innova car that had four people, including a woman, travelling in it. The registration number of the car is 109 CD 35. The car got badly damaged as it caught fire immediately after the blast.
A Tata Indica car moving alongside the Innova was also damaged.
According to another eyewitness Ravi Singh, passers-by rushed to rescue the people trapped in the two cars.
"There was an explosion in a car. There were two people in the car, which was followed by an Indica. People in the Indica car also got injured," Singh told reporters.
The fire department received the first call at 3.18 pm. One fire tender reached the spot to douse the flames. The Central Forensic Science Laboratory and the bomb squad team also reached the spot. Officials didn’t rule out a terror link.
Israel Blames Iran Of Bombings In India, Georgia
Jerusalem, Feb 13: Israel’s prime minister has accused Iran of being behind a pair of car bombings against Israeli diplomatic targets in India and Georgia.
Benjamin Netanyahu told a meeting of lawmakers from his Likud Party on Monday that he believed the Iranians were responsible for the attacks in New Delhi and Tbilisi.
Two people were wounded in India and the bomb in Georgia was discovered before it went off.
Netanyahu said Israel has thwarted other attacks in recent months in Azerbaijan, Thailand and elsewhere.
"In all those cases, the elements behind these attacks were Iran and its protege Hezbollah," he said.
Iran has accused Israel of involvement in a series of killings of officials and scientists involved in its controversial nuclear program.
Meanwhile, Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman said, his country will not tolerate attack on its diplomats posted abroad.
Iran rejected as "sheer lies" the accusations that it was involved in the bomb attack.
"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."
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said: “I was shocked and appalled to hear of the attack today on an Israeli diplomatic vehicle in New Delhi and the failed attack on another vehicle in Tbilisi.
"Our thoughts are with those injured and their families. This Government condemns terrorism in all forms. We urge both the Indian and Georgian authorities to fully investigate these deliberate attacks on diplomatic staff."
External Affairs Minister S. M. Krishna rang up his Israeli counterpart and assured that the Indian government will do its utmost to probe the attack and bring the guilty to book.
Police hunting for biker in Israel embassy car blast case
The Special Cell of Delhi Police will investigate the blast in an Israeli embassy car that left four people, including an Israeli woman, injured Monday, said Delhi Police Commissioner B.K. Gupta, adding that a hunt was on for the biker who allegedly attached the explosive.
"Police are on the hunt for the biker, wearing a brown jacket and driving a red-coloured bike, who attached a magnetic device to the rear side of the Israeli embassy car when it was standing at the Aurangzeb Road red light,” said Gupta.
There was only one person on the bike, he said.The 42-year-old wife of the defence attache in the embassy, her driver Manoj Sharma and two other people, Arun Sharma and Manjeet Singh, were injured in the incident that took place at 3.18 p.m.
According to hospital authorities, the Israeli woman’s name is Tal Yehoshua Koren.
Giving the sequence of the incident, Gupta said: "The woman was going to American Embassy School to pick up her children. According to an eyewitness, a biker stuck some kind of magnetic device to the car. After the motorcycle crossed, there was a blast and the vehicle caught fire."
"The Israeli woman is being treated at Primus hospital. Her condition is stable and she is conscious while the other three have suffered minor injuries," he said.
Gupta said a team of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) is examining the car to ascertain the nature of explosive used.