Israel blames Iran for Bangkok blasts

A string of blasts rattled the Thai capital Bangkok yesterday with Israel pointing the finger at arch-foe Iran, a day after bomb attacks targeted Israeli embassy staff in India and Georgia.

The explosions maimed a fleeing suspect believed to be an Iranian national. Israel linked the incident to a wider terrorist threat following Monday’s attacks, which left one female diplomat critically wounded in New Delhi.

Thai authorities alleged the man had links to Hezbollah, an Iranian- and Syrian-backed Muslim Shiite group that is black-listed as a terrorist organisation by Washington.

In January, officials in Baku, Azerbaijan said police had detained two people accused of plotting attacks on prominent foreigners masterminded by a man with alleged links to Iranian intelligence.

“The attempted attack in Bangkok proves once again that Iran and its proxies are continuing to act in the ways of terror and the latest attacks are an example of that,” Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said.

The country assailed Iran as the world’s “biggest exporter of terror” after Monday’s attacks amid rising tensions in the region. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also accused the Islamic republic of being responsible, along with Lebanon’s Shiite militia Hezbollah, for a series of failed attacks against Israeli targets in Thailand and Azerbaijan in mid-January.

Bangkok has been on edge since Thai police charged a Lebanese man last month suspected of planning an attack in the capital following a US warning of a possible terrorist strike against tourist areas.

Police said they had found no direct link between yesterday’s bombings and the earlier threat, but had received a separate warning from intelligence sources about a potential new attack.

“There was some warning of a possible attack and police were monitoring, but we did not know where it would happen,” national police chief Phrewphan Dama­pong told reporters.

Bomb squad investigators rushed to the scene after three men were seen fleeing after a blast at a house in the Sukhumvit Road area in the east of Bangkok.

One of the men hurled an explosive device at a taxi which refused to stop and later tried to throw another device at police, triggering a blast on the side of a busy road which tore off his legs, authorities said.

Police said they found an Iranian ID on the injured man, who was admitted to a Bangkok hospital for emergency treatment. “So it’s likely that he’s an Iranian national,” Major General Pisit Pisuthisak, deputy commander of Bangkok Metropolitan Police, said.