NEW DELHI - A hitman on a motorbike fixed a suspected magnetic bomb on an Israeli embassy car in the Indian capital on Monday, police said, in one of two attacks in New Delhi and Tbilisi blamed by Israel on Iran.
The embassy car exploded in a ball of flames in a diplomatic area of central New Delhi, injuring a 42-year-old female diplomat and her Indian driver who were pulled from the wreckage by bystanders, according to witnesses. In the Georgian capital Tbilisi, 3,700 kilometres to the west, an embassy employee found a suspicious device in his car and contacted police who were able to defuse the bomb before it went off.
“Iran is behind these attacks. It is the biggest exporter of terror in the world,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayhu told members of his right-wing Likud party in Jerusalem.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted by Al-Alam television as “categorically” rejecting the accusations. “Iran condemns all acts of terrorism,” he said. In New Delhi, police commissioner BK Gupta said that a witness had seen a man ride up behind the targeted vehicle - a silver Toyota with diplomatic plates - as it approached a junction shortly after leaving the Israeli embassy.
“He saw a man on a motorbike sticking some kind of a device on the rear side of the car,” the police commissioner told reporters. “Just a few seconds after the car exploded.” The 42-year-old diplomat inside - the wife of the defence attache in New Delhi who was on her way to collect her children from school - was taken to a private hospital where she was said to be critical but stable. Her driver and two others were also injured.  Witnesses described hearing an explosion around 3:30 pm (1000 GMT).
The blast was of relatively low intensity. The charred remains of the car surrounded by debris stood in the street until the early evening, with the roof still intact but the back door missing.
“I was opposite when the explosion occurred. All of a sudden there was a boom and I saw that a car was engulfed in fire. I really got a shock,” witness Shashwati Goswami, a New Delhi communications lecturer, told AFP.
The Indian government ordered the tightening of security at diplomatic missions, while Foreign Minister SM Krishna voiced regret.
In Washington, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned in the “strongest possible terms” the “cowardly” attacks and said the United States was ready to help with any investigations.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the attacks proved that Israelis both at home and abroad were “a target for terrorists” but that the country knew “how to identify those who are responsible.”