The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has blamed Hizbollah and Iran for a set of co-ordinated attacks on a woman in New Delhi and an employee at the Israeli embassy in Georgia. The PM said in a statement:
“In recent months we have witnessed several attempts to attack Israeli citizens and Jews in several countries, including Azerbaijan, Thailand and others. In each instance we succeeded in foiling the attacks in cooperation with local authorities. Iran and its proxy Hezbollah were behind all of these attempted attacks. Today we have witnessed two additional attempted terrorist attacks on innocent civilians, the first against an Israeli woman who was wounded in New Delhi and the second against a local employee of the Israeli Embassy in Georgia. Iran is behind these attacks; it is the largest exporter of terrorism in the world. The Government of Israel and the security services will continue to act together with local security forces against such acts of terrorism. We will continue to take strong and systematic, yet patient, action against the international terrorism that originates in Iran.”
Catherine Ashton, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, weighed in by condemning the attacks, but stopped short of naming Iran or Hizb’allah as the perpetrators.
India’s Home Office Minister, P Chidambara, said that the magnetic bomb attached to the car of an Israeli diplomat in New Delhi had been placed by a “well trained person” saying that the target was the Israeli diplomat’s wife. The woman has been critically injured and three others were hurt in the attack. It is believed that a motorcyclist attached the bomb while the car was stopped at a red light. The device then exploded a few moments later.
Officials in Georgia have arrested a man in connection with a bomb found attached to an embassy car. The target was thought to be Roman Khachaturian. The device was neutralized before it could explode.
