Dual Terror Attacks Against Israeli Targets in India and Georgia; Envoys Wife Wounded in Attempted Car Bombing
Israeli missions in Georgia and India attacked
An explosion tore through an Israeli diplomat’s car in the vicinity of the Israeli Embassy in New Delhi, India, Monday.
The wife of an Israeli Defense Ministry representative suffered light to moderate wounds in the terror attack.
Israeli Embassy Spokesman David Goldfarb confirmed that an explosion took out a diplomat’s car. The injured woman was identified as Tal Yehoshua Koren, the wife of a diplomat stationed with the Defense Ministry’s mission in India.
An initial probe into the attack revealed that the envoy’s wife left the embassy with her driver after a day of work at the mission in order to pick up her children from school. The explosion took place a short while before she arrived at the school, apparently after a bomb was attached to the vehicle.
Koren managed to call the embassy and report that “the vehicle exploded,” before being evacuated to a local hospital in a rickshaw. Officials said she suffered shrapnel wounds to her lower body. The driver of the vehicle was also hurt in the blast.
Indian media outlets reported that two bikers were tailing the car driven by the Israeli diplomat’s wife in New Delhi and that at one point one of them “hurled something at the car,” which exploded shortly after.
The blast came just one day after the fourth anniversary marking the assassination of Hezbollah arch-terrorist Imad Mugniyah.
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Yigal Palmor said that the ministry was “looking into the incident and cooperation with local security forces is excellent.”
Indian police initially said that a car was on fire on the street outside the embassy. Television footage showed a charred minivan with blue diplomatic plates, its rear door apparently blown out.
Meanwhile, explosives were also found near the Israeli Embassy building in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. The device was neutralized safely.
Israeli Ambassador to Georgia Yitzhak Gerber told Ynet that “We don’t have all the details yet. The local authorities are looking into it, but so far it doesn’t look too dramatic.
“From what we know now, there was an attempt to place an explosive device on a car belonging to one of our local employees. He noticed it while he was on his way to us, and alerted the authorities. The device was defused.”