Israel embassy car explodes in Delhi, Georgia car bomb defused: police

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims Iran is behind both attacks, knows how to identify those responsible.

NEW DELHI: An Israeli embassy car blew up on Monday in Indian capital New Delhi, injuring two people, but the cause of the explosion was not immediately known, police said.

The car, which was parked down the street from the Israeli embassy in a residential neighbourhood of central Delhi, was badly burnt.

Two people were injured when the car exploded, police spokesman Rajan Bhagat, told AFP, adding there were no details about their condition.

The vehicle was carrying Israeli diplomatic licence plates, Vinod Tokas, a police officer at the scene, told AFP.

“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,” Israeli embassy spokesman David Goldfarb said.

Meanwhile, in Georgia, police defused an explosive device found in the car of an employee of the Israeli embassy in the ex-Soviet state’s capital Tbilisi, the interior ministry said.

“An employee of the Israeli embassy found a suspected explosive device in their car and contacted the police,” interior ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili told AFP. “The object was an explosive device which has been neutralised,” he said, adding that the device did not go off and no one was hurt.

Iran behind attacks on Israeli personnel: Netanyahu

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday blamed Iran for attacks on Israeli embassy staff in Georgia and India that wounded at least two people, one of them an Israeli woman.

"Iran is behind these attacks. It is the biggest exporter of terror in the world," Netanyahu told members of his rightwing Likud party.

The Israeli leader said there had been a number of attempts to harm Israelis and Jews in recent months, in places such as Thailand and Azerbaijan, in a series of attacks coordinated by Tehran and Lebanon's Shia militia, the Hezbollah.

"In all these incidents, those responsible were Iran and its protege Hezbollah," he said.

Israel would continue to act "with a firm hand" to stamp out "international terror coming from Iran," he said.

His remarks were made shortly after a car outside the Israeli embassy in New Delhi exploded in a ball of fire, injuring two people, one of whom was an Israeli woman, Netanyahu said.

Separately, the Georgian interior ministry confirmed that police in the capital Tbilisi had defused an explosive device found in the car of an Israeli embassy employee.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the attacks proved that Israelis both at home and abroad were "a target for terrorists."

"We are facing physical terror as well as political terror on a daily basis," Lieberman said in a statement, in which he said Israel knew "how to identify those who are responsible."

"These attacks also remind us of the fact that Israeli diplomats are on the front lines of the campaign that Israel is dealing with around the world."

Attacks similar in nature to assassination of Iran scientists

The method used in the attacks closely mirrors the tactics of assassins that have been targeting Iranian nuclear scientists with magnetic bombs placed on their cars.

Three scientists and a physicist have been killed in the last two years in murders blamed by Iran on Israeli and American secret services.

The bomb plots in New Delhi and Tbilisi also fell between anniversaries of the deaths of two top militants from Hezbollah, the militant group which has close ties to Iran.