NEW DELHI (AP) - Assailants targeted Israeli diplomats in India and Georgia in near-simultaneous strikes Monday that Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahublamed on archenemy Iran and its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah. Iran denied responsibilityfor the attacks.
The bombs, which wounded four people, threatened to ratchet up alreadyhigh tensions between Iran, which has been accused of developing a nuclear weapons program, and Israel, which says such a program would be an existential threat to the Jewish state.
The violence came asrecent comments by Israeli officials have raised concerns Israelmight be preparing an imminent strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. U.S. and other Western countries have been pressing Israel to give sanctions more time.
Tehran already has accused Israel of covert attacks on its nuclear program, including assassinations of top nuclear officials and scientists.
Monday's attacks appeared to have been carried out with sticky bombs attached to cars by magnets. Similar weapons were used against Iran's nuclearscientists, feeding suspicions that the new bombings were a retaliation crafted to mirror those attacks.
"Today we witnessedtwo attempts of terrorism against innocent civilians," Netanyahu told lawmakers from his Likud Party. "Iran is behind these attacks and it is the largest terror exporter in theworld."
In India, an assailant on a motorcycle apparently attached a bomb to an Israeli diplomat's vehicle and it quickly exploded, officials said. Israel said an attempted car bombing in Tbilisi, Georgia, was thwarted. Netanyahualso said Israel had thwarted attacks in recent months in Azerbaijan and Thailand and unspecified other countries.
"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 internationalterror."
Iranian officials rejected Netanyahu'saccusation as unfounded.
"This accusation is within the Zionist regime's psychological war against Iran," the official IRNA news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast as saying.full:
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