PM vows to act 'with a strong hand' against terrorism after blast in New Delhi and discovery of device in Tbilisi
The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has accused Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah of responsibility for two car bombs that targeted Israeli diplomats in India and Georgia.
At least two people were injured when a blast in New Delhi wrecked a vehicle with diplomatic plates. A device in Tbilisi was defused by Georgian police.
"Today we witnessed two attempts of terrorism against innocent civilians," Netanyahu told a gathering of politicians from his Likud party.
"Iran is behind these attacks, and it is the largest terror exporter in the world."
There was no claim of responsibility for the bombs. Netanyahu said Israel had thwarted similar attacks in Azerbaijan and Thailand in recent months.
"In all those cases, the elements behind these attacks were Iran and its protege Hezbollah," he said, vowing to "act with a strong hand against international terror".
Indian officials said the driver and a diplomat's wife were injured in the Delhi attack, which happened close to the embassy. Television footage showed a charred minivan with blue diplomatic plates, its rear door apparently blown out.
The Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, Yigal Palmor, said: "We are looking into the incident, and co-operation with local security forces is excellent."
Officials in Georgia said an explosive device was planted on the car of a driver for the Israeli embassy.
The interior ministry said the driver noticed a package attached to the car's undercarriage and called police, who found a grenade.
There was no immediate comment from Iran or Hezbollah. Iran suspects Israeli involvement in a series of killings of officials and scientists involved in its nuclear programme.
Hezbollah dominates the government of Lebanon, and fought Israel in a month-long war in the summer of 2006. On Sunday, it marked the fourth anniversary of the assassination of one of its commanders, Imad Mughniyeh, who died in a bombing widely believed to have been carried out by Israel.
Mike Herzog, a retired Israeli general and a former aide to the Israeli defence minister, Ehud Barak said: "There have been all kinds of mysterious things happening in Iran, and it could be an Iranian counter-attack. It's no secret that Iran uses Hezbollah globally, and Hezbollah has the capacity to carry out attacks around the globe."
Last month, a director of Iran's main uranium enrichment site was killed in a blast caused by a magnetic bomb placed on his car. The official, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, was at least the fifth member of Iran's scientific community to be killed in apparent targeted attacks in the past two years.
Iran accused Israel of being behind the attacks. Later, Iran's official IRNA news agency said it had evidence of alleged US and British involvement in the Roshan killing.
In a signal that Iran could strike back after Roshan's killing, General Masoud Jazayeri, the spokesman for Iran's joint armed forces staff, was quoted by the semi-official ISNA news agency last month as saying Tehran was "reviewing the punishment" of "behind-the-scenes elements" involved in the assassination.
"Iran's response will be a tormenting one for supporters of state terrorism," he said. "The enemies of the Iranian nation, especially the United States, Britain and the Zionist regime, or Israel, have to be held responsible for their activities."
Iran has also blamed the US and its allies for a sophisticated computer virus known as Stuxnet, which was programmed to disrupt the centrifuges used in uranium enrichment. Iran said the virus was detected in its systems, but claimed no serious setbacks had occurred.
Israel routinely advises its citizens to use caution when travelling abroad, and has had a standing alert for tourists visiting India since an attack on a Jewish centre in Mumbai in 2008.
Israeli diplomats have been frequent targets of attackers around the world. In January 2010, attakcers detonated a roadside bomb near a convoy of cars carrying Israeli diplomats in Jordan. No one was hurt, and there was no claim of responsibility.
In 1992, a bombing attack at the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires killed 29 people. Two years later, a bombing at a Jewish community centre in the Argentinian capital killed 85 people. Argentinians have long suspected that high-level Iranian diplomats were involved in the 1994 bombing.
The Jewish Chabad group was one of the targets in a 2008 rampage by Islamic militants in the Indian city of Chabad. The attacks killed more than 160 people. Among them were six people at the Chabad house, including the rabbi who ran the site.