Bangkok bombers part of wider network: Israel
Iranian suspects behind a failed bomb plot in Thailand were 'part of the same network' as assailants who targeted Israeli embassy staff in India and Georgia, Israel's ambassador said on Wednesday.
Itzhak Shoham said there appeared to be a close link between bombings in three world capitals in less than 24 hours, suggesting that the perpetrators in Thailand had been trying to assassinate Israeli diplomats.
"This is what we were concerned about... that the targets were the Israelis -- same system, same explosive, and part of the same network," he told AFP.
One of the Iranian suspects triggered a blast that tore off his legs as he hurled an explosive device at Thai police while fleeing an earlier explosion at a house in Bangkok on Tuesday.
Reacting to information from a senior Thai intelligence official that he and other Israeli diplomats were the target of a bomb plot, Shoham said he was happy that the attempt failed.
But he added: "It doesn't mean that everything is finished, but we hope we are on the right path."
He repeated the Israeli government accusation that Iran was behind the bombings. A female diplomat was seriously wounded in the New Delhi blast on Monday.
The ambassador said authorities had been alert to a threat since police last month charged a Lebanese man suspected of planning a strike following a US warning that tourist areas might be targeted.
Thai authorities alleged the Lebanese man had links to Hezbollah, an Iranian- and Syrian-backed Muslim Shiite group that is blacklisted as a terrorist organisation by Washington.
"There were kinds of warnings, but if they are related or not is up to the police and authorities here to establish," Shoham said.
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