Police officials investigating attack on an Israeli embassy car in Delhi on Monday said the kind of bomb was never before seen in India and likely created by “foreign experts.”
“The bomb was perfectly made and we have never seen such a bomb in Delhi. Maybe, it was made by foreign experts,” the official told the Times of India.
The vehicle was a short distance from the Israeli embassy and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s official residence when the attack occurred. Four people were injured in the blast, including the wife of Israel’s Defense Attache in Dehli, Tal Yehoshua-Komer.
According to the Indian news program IBN Live, a forensic lab report detailing the exact nature of the explosives used in the blasts is expected within the next 24 to 48 hours.
“A sophisticated incendiary device was used in the blast, a first in its kind for a terror attack in India. This has been giving officials cause for concern,” the news channel reported.
Delhi Police are expected to deliver a detailed report on their preliminary investigations to Home Ministry officials by Tuesday evening.
Israeli security officials are said to be collaborating closely with investigators from the Delhi Police Special Cell as the investigation progresses.
The Delhi car bomb was part of twin attacks targeting Israel’s embassies in India and Georgia. The India bombing injured four, including the wife of Israel’s Defense Attache in Delhi.
Tal Yohoshua-Komer was in moderate condition but suffering mild paralysis in her lower extemities, the Indian news channel IBN reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Iran and its terror client Hizbullah of being behind the car bombings against Israeli diplomats in both India as well as Georgia.
The attacks took place a day after the fourth anniversary of the death of Hizbullah deputy leader Imad Mugniyeh. Mugniyeh was killed in a car bombing in Damascus on 12 February 2008.
Prior to his death, Mugniyeh is known to have participated in the bombings at the US Embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut, the TWA 845 hijacking, and the torture-murders of both CIA station chief William Buckley and US Marine Corps Lt. Col. William Richard Higgins.
For years Mugniyeh topped the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list with a USD 5 million bounty on his head. Of him, former US President Ronald Reagan said, “We will not rest until justice is done.”
However, Mugniyeh’s death is widely blamed on Israel and has sparked annual vows of revenge on Israeli targets from the Iran-backed Shiite terror group.
Indian intelligence officials suspect that Iran used local terrorists to attack an Israeli diplomat’s car Monday, the Times of India reports.
However, Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram declined to blame any one country on Tuesday saying only that the bombing appeared to be “a terror strike carried out by a well-trained attacker,” according to the Associated Press.
Nonetheless, Indian officials have warned of “consequences” if Iran is found to be behind the attacks.
Observers note that the method of attack – a lone motorcylist attaching a magnetic explosive to a vehicle before racing away – is almost identical to th tactic employed in the targeted assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists.
Those attacks have been widely blamed on the People’s Mujahadeen of Iran (MEK), which Iran has accused Israel of funding, training and supporting in its efforts to derail Tehran’s drive for nuclear weapons.
The Delhi and Georgia bombings come just one week after officials in the Obama administration made the unusual decision to join Tehran in accusing Israel of backing the MEK.
Tehran has blamed Israel of attacking its own diplomats as a form of “psychological warfare” against Iran.
However, analysts suggest the decision to mirror MEK tactics could be a less-than-subtle message from Tehran to Jerusalem without officials admitting to the attack.
Israeli officials have dismissed the Iranian counter-allegations as “ridiculous.”
