Very Graphic. Mature Content Warning. 

(CNN) — Israel’s defense minister blamed Iran for a
series of bombings in the Thai capital of Bangkok Tuesday, a day after 
attacks against the country’s diplomats in India and Georgia.

“The attempted terror attack in Thailand proves once again that Iran
and its proxies continue to operate in the ways of terror and the latest
attacks are an example of that,” said Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who
issued the statement from Singapore, where he is currently traveling. “Iran and Hezbollah are unrelenting terror elements endangering the
stability of the region, and endangering the stability of the world,”
Barak added. Two Iranians are now in custody in Thailand and another person is at
large, the government said. Five people were injured, authorities said.

The first bomb went off in a rental house, believed to be leased by
three foreigners, according to Thai Police Maj. Gen. Pisit Pisutthisak. The three fled after the blast. Two of the men left the scene, he
said. The third man detonated two more bombs — one when a taxi driver
refused to give him a ride, and another when he tried to throw a bomb at
police as they closed on him. The last bomb exploded near the man, blowing off one of his legs,
Pisit said. He was taken to Chulalongkorn General Hospital for
treatment.Thai government spokeswoman Thitima Chaisaeng said the man in the
hospital is Iranian, and that Iranian documents were found on him. Another man arrested at the airport is holding an Iranian passport
and is one of the three, Thitima said. He was identified as Mohammad
Hasai, 42, and was about to leave for Malaysia, she added.

Thitima told CNN that Thai intelligence agencies don’t think the
incident was an act of terror because it was carried out in a sporadic
way. But, she said, police think that the men may have been selling
weapons and drugs. Israeli Foreign Ministry personnel based overseas have been on alert
in recent weeks to the heightened possibility of attacks at Israeli
facilities by Hezbollah, the Lebanese Muslim militant group and
political party backed by Iran.

Sunday marked the fourth anniversary of the death of Hezbollah leader
Imad Mugniyah in a car bombing in Damascus, Syria. Hezbollah holds
Israel responsible for his death and has vowed revenge. Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told CNN that the level of
alert in the country had been raised following a security assessment
after the overseas incidents in New Delhi and Tbilisi, the capitals of
India and Georgia. The alert means patrols will be heightened in and around various
public areas inside Israel, and around Israeli embassies and offices
worldwide.

In the Monday incidents, a device attached to an Israeli Embassy van
in New Delhi exploded and injured four people. Another device was found
on an embassy car in Tbilisi, Georgia, but it was safety detonated. The Israeli government issued a travel advisory this year for
citizens traveling to Thailand after Thai security officials arrested a
man in January connected with a planned attack in the country. The police charged the man, Atris Hussein, after finding “initial
chemical materials that could produce bombs” in an area just outside
Bangkok. Police said Hussein, who also holds a Swedish passport, led
them to the location.

The authorities are accusing Hussein of trying to attack spots in
Bangkok that are popular with Western tourists and say he is believed to
belong to Hezbollah, the Shiite Muslim group active in Lebanon that the
United States views as a terrorist organization. Police could not confirm whether the Tuesday incident in Bangkok has
any link with the Hezbollah suspect, who is still in Thai police
custody. Officers found the explosive C-4 during the search of the
rented house. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the United
States condemns the incident and offered its condolences to the victims.

“What I would say is that, with regard to this bombing, the incidents
in Delhi, incidents in Georgia, while we will await the results of the
investigations, these events do come on the heels of other disrupted
attacks targeted at Israel and Western interests, including an
Iranian-sponsored attack in Baku, Azerbaijan, and a Hezbollah-linked
attack in Bangkok, Thailand, before this. “So they serve as a reminder that a variety of states and nonstate
actors continue to view international terrorism as a legitimate foreign
policy tool, which we consider reprehensible.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday blamed the
Georgia and India incidents on Iran, calling it “the biggest exporter of
terror in the world.”

“The Israeli government and her security organizations are continuing
to operate together with local security services against these acts of
terror,” Netanyahu said. “We will continue to act in a strong way,
systematically and steadfastly.” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast blamed Israel,
accusing it of having bombed its own embassies in New Delhi and Tbilisi
“to tarnish Iran’s friendly ties with the host countries,” Iran’s
state-run Islamic Republic News Agency said. “He brushed aside Israeli
accusation on Iranian involvement in the bombing and said that Israel
perpetrated the terrorist actions to launch psychological warfare
against Iran,” IRNA reported. “Iran condemns terrorism in strongest term and Iran has been the victim of terrorism,” Mehmanparast said.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said this month that
Iran would support any nation or group that stands up against Israel. He
said Iran doesn’t interfere in other nations but has aided such
militant groups as Hamas and Hezbollah in conflicts with Israel in Gaza
and Lebanon. The modus operandi is not new. Last month, a mysterious explosion in
Iran killed a man identified as a nuclear scientist — the third such
killing in the past two years in which someone placed a bomb on or under
a scientist’s car. A fourth survived an assassination attempt. The United States and Israel oppose Iran’s nuclear program, although
numerous countries have expressed concern as well. Iran insists its
nuclear program is for peaceful, civilian energy purposes.

Iranian officials, on state-run media, blame Israel and the United States for the killings of the scientists. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has denied “any United States involvement in any kind of act of violence inside Iran.” While Israel generally refuses to comment on accusations and
speculation, Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, a spokesman for the Israel
Defense Forces, said on his Facebook page, “I have no idea who targeted
the Iranian scientist but I certainly don’t shed a tear.”

http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/14/world/asia/thailand-explosion/index.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/thailand/9081875/Israel-blames-Iran-for-Bangkok-blasts.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17026007