Israeli envoys 'targeted' in attacks

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Iran and Lebanese ally Hizbullah of involvement in bomb attacks at Israel's embassies…

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Iran and Lebanese ally Hizbullah of involvement in bomb attacks at Israel's embassies in India and Georgia today that wounded four people.

The New Delhi bomb wrecked a vehicle with diplomatic plates. Israel's parliamentary television channel said the wife of Israel's defence attache and her driver were among four people hurt.

The Tbilisi bomb was defused safely by Georgian police.

The New Delhi blast took place some 500 metres from the official residence of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

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"I heard a bomb blast near the petrol pump. I went to see what happened and the next thing I saw was the car ablaze. There was a lady and a driver inside the car. The people pulled them out of the car," said Ravi Singh, a witness.

Other witnesses told Indian television they saw two people on a motorbike sticking a device onto the rear of the car when it stopped at a traffic signal.

Georgian police prevented a similar incident, defusing a bomb found in a car of an Israeli embassy staff member.

However, Iran has rejected as "sheer lies" claims it was involved in the bomb attack in India, the official IRNA news agency quoted the Islamic Republic's ambassador to New Delhi as saying today.

"Any terrorist attack is condemned [by Iran] and we strongly reject the untrue comments by an Israeli official," Mehdi Nabizadeh was quoted as saying. "These accusations are untrue and sheer lies, like previous times."

Israel had put its foreign missions on especially high alert ahead of the February 12th anniversary of the assassination, in 2008, of the military mastermind of Lebanon's Hizbullah guerrillas, Imad Moughniyeh.

Iranian-backed Hizbullah had vowed to avenge Moughniyeh's death in a Damascus car-bombing, blaming it on the Jewish state.

Israel is also believed to be locked in a wider covert war with Iran, whose nuclear programme has been beset by sabotage, including the unclaimed killings of several scientists.

"Iran, which stands behind these attacks, is the largest exporter of terror in the world," Mr Netanyahu told lawmakers from his Likud party in Jerusalem.

He linked the incidents to allegations of similar but foiled attacks in Thailand and Azerbaijan last month for which, he said, Iran and its "proxy" Hizbullah were responsible.

There was no immediate comment from Tehran nor Beirut.

Reuters