Iran Suspected of Blowing up Israeli Diplomat's Car Near PM's House in Delhi

On February 13, 2012, a bomb attached to the car of Tal Yehoshua Koren, the wife of an Israeli defense attaché stationed at the Israeli embassy in New Delhi, exploded on a city street not far from the Prime Minister's residence. A motorcycle-borne attacker had slapped a magnetic "sticky bomb" onto her car while she was on her way to pick up her children from school; the device detonated seconds later, setting the car ablaze. Koren was seriously wounded — she later required surgery to remove shrapnel — and her driver and two bystanders suffered minor injuries.

Hours earlier the same day, a car bomb had been discovered under the vehicle of an Israeli embassy driver in Tbilisi, Georgia, and defused. And the following day, February 14, a house rented by Iranian nationals exploded in Bangkok — an apparently accidental detonation that exposed a second plot, leaving one of the men without legs and others arrested at the airport and in Malaysia. Indian investigators later established that the Delhi bombers' module was in contact with the Bangkok cell, and arrest warrants were issued for three Iranians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately accused Iran of being behind the attacks — retaliation, analysts suggested, for a string of assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists widely attributed to Israeli intelligence. Iran and Hezbollah denied responsibility.

In March 2012, Delhi Police arrested Indian freelance journalist Syed Mohammed Kazmi, a part-time contributor to Iran's IRNA news agency, accusing him of carrying out reconnaissance for the attackers — he had been in contact with the man police believed planted the bomb, and had visited Iran before the attack. Interpol warrants followed for the Iranians believed to have entered India on tourist visas and fled after the blast.

The incident was diplomatically agonizing for New Delhi, which maintains close defense ties with Israel while remaining a major buyer of Iranian crude oil. But it made something visible that had long been murky: the shadow conflict between Israel and Iran — assassinations, bombings, cyberattacks — was no longer confined to the Middle East. It was being fought in Delhi, Tbilisi, and Bangkok.

Sources

• New Delhi attack suspect was in contact with Iran — Jewish Journal
• Indian police say Delhi, Bangkok blasts linked — Jewish Journal
• Indians arrest reporter for plotting Israeli's bombing — Iran Times