Blasts in Bangkok linked to Iran

• As if Bangkok didn"t suffer enough with the floods a couple of months ago, now this, WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS WORLD???????
  

#contentContainer {
WIDTH: 640px; FLOAT: none
}
#flash-vid {
VISIBILITY: hidden
}




Breaking News


11:11am UK, Tuesday February 14, 2012




Blasts In Bangkok 'Linked To Iran'

• 20 Comments
  
• 
  
• 
  

11:11am UK, Tuesday February 14, 2012

Two explosions have rocked the Thai capital Bangkok and have been linked to
Iran.


A picture posted on Twitter showed a wounded man lying on a sidewalk outside
a Thai school.

Several Thai television stations reported the injured man was carrying
explosives at the time.

They said an identification card found in a satchel nearby indicated he may
be of Iranian descent.

The reports could not immediately be confirmed, however.

Sky's foreign editor Tim Marshall said circumstantial
details linked the Bangkok blasts with attacks targeting Israel yesterday in India and
Georgia.

The Israeli Embassy is within four blocks of the bombing site in Bangkok,
Marshall said.

Police Colonel Sittiphab Baiprasert said the explosions occurred about 100
metres apart on Sukhumvit Soi 71, a thoroughfare with businesses and apartment
blocks.

He gave no other details. Local media said traffic had been halted while
authorities investigated.

Thailand has rarely been a target for foreign terrorists, although a domestic
Muslim insurgency in the country's south has involved bombings of civilian
targets.

Last month, a foreign suspect with alleged links to Hezbollah militants led
Thai police to a warehouse filled with more than 4,000kg of urea fertilizer and
ammonium nitrate.

Israel and the United States have warned their citizens to be alert in the
capital.

On Monday, bombs targeted Israeli diplomats in India and Georgia.
The attack in India wounded four people.

Israel blamed that attack on Iran or its proxies - claims Iran
denied.

1:47pm UK, Wednesday February 15, 2012




Israel's prime minister has said Iran is "destabilising the
world" and its "aggression must be halted", following a series of
explosions in Thailand and India it is blaming on Tehran.


Two Iranian men have been charged in connection with three explosions in Bangkok on Tuesday.


Israel has already stated it believes the attacks were linked to
those aimed at its diplomats in New Delhi and Georgia earlier this week.


"At this time, Iran's terrorist activities have been exposed to
everyone," Benjamin Netanyahu said, accusing the Islamic republic of
"harming innocent diplomats across the world".


Iran has denied responsibility for the attacks.


Foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast rejected "the
accusations by the Zionist regime of implication (of Iran)", accusing
Israel of "trying to harm the friendly and historic relations between
Iran and Thailand".


The series of blasts in Bangkok began when a cache of explosives
ignited at a house, apparently by mistake. CCTV footage has been
released of three Iranians thought to have been renting the house.











CCTV image of one of the Iranian suspects




One of the men who fled the building had his legs blown off after a grenade he threw at police bounced back at him.


Thai police later found and defused two home-made 'sticky' bombs that could be stuck on vehicles.


They said the men were likely to have been planning to attack
individuals but did not have the capacity to target large crowds or
buildings.


Four civilians were injured.


The explosions occurred just four blocks from the Israeli embassy.


"They are similar to the ones used in Delhi and in Tbilisi,"
ambassador Itzhak Shoham said. "From that we can assume that there is
the same network of terror."


While the targets of the bombs are not clear, "we can assume from the
other experiences that we were the target," said Itzhak Shoham.


The injured Iranian, named by Thai police as Saeid Morati, was
arrested and another man, Mohummad Hazaei, was held at Bangkok airport
after attempting to flee the country.


Police have arrested a third man in Malaysia.













Map of this week's attacks




A bombing of an Israeli diplomatic car in New Delhi on Monday injured four people, including a diplomat's wife. A similar bomb found under a car in Georgia on Monday was defused.


Israel believes Iran may be exacting revenge for the recent deaths of two leading nuclear scientists. Iran has accused Israel of being behind the deaths.


One of the scientists was blown up in his car by a motorbike hitman in January.


That assassination mirrored the method used by the hitman in New Delhi.


Iran has also blamed Israel for the sabotage of military installations and nuclear sites over the past several years.


Last month, a foreign suspect with alleged links to Hizbollah militants led Thai police to a warehouse filled with more than 4,000kg of urea fertilizer and ammonium nitrate.