Israel accuses Iran over bombings
Israel has accused Iran of being behind a bungled terrorist attack in Thailand after a man blew his legs off trying to throw a grenade at police.
Defence Minister Ehud Barak stopped short of saying the man was trying to target Israelis.
However, it came a day after Israel blamed Iran for attacks targeting Israeli diplomats in India and Georgia. And Mr Barak’s comments made clear that Israel considers the attacks connected and sponsored by the Iranian government.
Israeli officials believe Iran, and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah, are aggressively targeting Israelis to avenge years of setbacks that they blame on Israel.
“The attempted terrorist attack in Bangkok proves once again that Iran and its proxies continue to perpetrate terror,” Mr Barak said. “The recent terror attacks are yet another example of this.”
“Iran and Hezbollah are unrelenting terror elements endangering the stability of the region, and endangering the stability of the world,” he added.
In the latest attack an Iranian carrying grenades set off a series of explosions that injured himself and four civilians, after an earlier blast shook the house where he was staying.
He apparently fled from the house and threw grenades at a taxi that refused to stop for him. Then he threw another grenade at police, but it bounced back and hit him, severing his legs.
Thailand is a popular destination for Israeli tourists, so it is possible that Israeli civilians could have been a potential target.
Earlier Israeli police heightened their state of alert throughout the country in response to the overseas attacks.
In Monday’s attacks, an Israeli diplomat’s wife and her driver were wounded in New Delhi after a motorcyclist attached a bomb to their car. A similar attempt in Tbilisi, Georgia, was thwarted after Israelis spotted the bomb and defused it.
