India searching for person behind Israel attack

Iran has denied responsibility for the attack, as well as a foiled bombing in Georgia, which appeared to mirror the recent killings of Iranian nuclear scientists that Tehran blamed on Israel. The blast in New Delhi set a car ablaze and wounded four people, including an Israeli Embassy driver and a diplomat’s wife, who was in critical, but stable, condition. Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said the strike appeared to be a terror attack carried out by a ”very well-trained person.” Israel has blamed Iran and the Lebanese group Hezbollah for the attack and the failed strike in Georgia, which have ratcheted already heightened tensions between Tehran and the Jewish state. Iran is a strong Indian ally and a steady oil supplier to the energy-starved country. India declined to cast blame for the attack in the heart of its capital, just a few hundred yards (meters) from the prime minister’s residence. ”At the moment, I am not pointing a finger at any particular group or any particular organization. But whoever did it, we condemn it in the strongest terms,” Chidambaram said. Indian security experts say that scores of students from north India go every year to the Iranian holy city of Qom for religious studies and many maintain contacts there. Israel sent forensic scientists from its police force to New Delhi to search for clues as to who carried out the attacks, an Israeli government official said. The embassy declined to provide details of the investigation. ”There is day-to-day cooperation between Israeli authorities and Indian security authorities. Very close cooperation,” Israeli Embassy spokesman David Goldfarb said. Israeli officials said they expected the attacks would not be isolated. ”No doubt we face a wave of terror,” Cabinet Minister Dan Meridor told Israel Radio on Tuesday. The attack took place just after 3 p.m. Monday, when Tal Yehoshua-Koren, the wife of a Defense Ministry official based in New Delhi, was heading to the American Embassy School to pick up her children, police said. A single person on a motorcycle rode up behind her minivan as it was stopped at a red light and attached a bomb to the rear door, Chidambaram said. The motorcycle then sped off and the bomb blew up four or five seconds later. The driver of the van and two people in a nearby car suffered minor injuries. Yehoshua-Koren underwent surgery to remove shrapnel from near her spine and was in critical, but stable condition Tuesday morning, according to Dr. P.K. Sachdeva, a neurosurgeon treating her at Primus Hospital. ”She is responding to verbal commands. Her husband has met her. There is partial paralysis of the legs, but we are hoping that with time she will improve,” he said. Authorities were scanning closed circuit camera footage of the street, and special teams were searching for the motorcycle and its rider, Chidambaram said. ”Diplomats of every country are entitled to live and work here in peace and security, and any attempt to attack any diplomat or a member of a diplomat’s family is condemnable,” he said. After Monday’s attack, security was tightened at embassies across the capital. ”As the government of India has recommended, all diplomatic missions are taking security precautions in light of this incident,” said Peter Vrooman, spokesman for the US Embassy.