Israeli embassy’s car hit by explosion near PM’s residence
Israeli embassy’s car hit by explosion near PM’s residence.
STAR News Bureau and agencies
New Delhi: A car belonging to the Israeli Embassy was gutted after it suddenly exploded in the VVIP area of Delhi on Monday.
The Innova SUV car bearing diplomatic number 109 CD 35 went up in flames after it exploded near a petrol pump, metres away from 7 Race Course Road – PM’s residence. Another car in the vicinity was also damaged.
Two persons are said to be injured and have been rushed to nearby hospitals.
The incident took place at about 500 meters away from the PM’s residence. The incident occurred at 3:15 pm.
Israel says bombs target embassies in India, Georgia
Bombers targeted staff at Israel’s embassies in India and Georgia on Monday, the Foreign Ministry of Israel said, with a bomb going off in New Delhi but a second device in Tbilisi defused.
In a first official response to the blast, foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman said there were two “attacks against Israeli embassies abroad.”
“This just means that the state of Israel and its citizens face a daily threat of terror, both physical and diplomatic. We know exactly whose responsible for the attack and who planned it and we’re not going to take it lying down,” Lieberman said.
“Today’s events remind us again how Israeli diplomats stand at the forefront of the fight which Israel is leading around the world, the minister added.
All of Monday’s incidents come a day following the fourth anniversary of the assasination of slain Hezbollah’s deputy leader Imad Mughniyah.
“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.
“There was one attempted attack, and one successful, as it were,” said Paul Hirschson, a spokesman for Israel’s foreign ministry. “In both cases, the people concerned worked with the Israeli embassies.”
He also confirmed that a bomb had been found in a car belonging to a staffer at the embassy in the Georgian capital Tbilisi, which was defused by local police. Hirschson said the Israeli ambassador to India was not hurt in the New Delhi attack.
Israel had put its foreign missions on especially high alert ahead of the February 12 anniversary of the assassination, in 2008, of the military mastermind of Lebanon’s Hezbollah guerrillas, linked to the Shi’ite Islamist group Hezbollah, Imad Moughniyeh.
Iranian-backed Hezbollah had vowed to avenge Moughniyeh’s death in a Damascus car-bombing, blaming it on Israel.
Israelis had also warned of possible reprisals ordered by Tehran for the assassination of several scientists involved in Iran’s controversial nuclear program. No-one has claimed responsibility for the Iran killings.
– with agency inputs
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