Bombers target Israeli diplomat in India, Georgia

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By Douglas Stanglin, USA TODAY

Updated 3m ago

CAPTION

By Mustafa Quraishi, AP

An Israeli diplomat was wounded when his car was bombed in New Delhi and Israeli staff in at least one other country were also targeted, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman says, according to Ha'aretz.The Associated Press, quoting Indian officials, reports that the driver and a diplomat's wife were injured in the attack in the Indian capital.
Ha'aretz says a targeted attack was also suspected in Amsterdam, but had no details.
Update at 7:52 a.m. ET: Authorities in the former Soviet republic of Georgia say an explosive device was planted on the car of a driver for the Israeli Embassy in Tbilisi but defused, the AP reports.
Shota Uitashvili, spokesman for the Georgian Interior Ministry, says the driver noticed a package attached to his car's undercarriage today and called police.
Police found a grenade in the package and it was defused, Utiashvili said.
He said the car was in a parking lot about 200 yards from the embassy, where the driver had parked it in the morning after coming from his home.
Update at 7:47 a.m. ET: Israeli embassy spokesman David Goldfarb in New Delhi says the explosion occurred in the late afternoon near the embassy, the Associated Press reports. The AP also reports that television footage of the blast shows a charred minivan with blue diplomatic plates, its rear door apparently blown out.
Update at 7:43 a.m. ET: Following today's events, Ha'aretz reports, the Israeli foreign ministry instructed all of its diplomats to stop using their vehicles until they are checked by security officials.
Update at 7:34 a.m. ET: In the first official response to the incidents, Ha'aretz quotes Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman as saying there were two attacks on Israeli embassies abroad and that one Israeli diplomat in New Delhi was moderately wounded.
"This just means that the State of Israel and its citizens face a daily threat of terror, both physical and diplomatic. We know exactly whose responsible for the attack and who planned it and we're not going to take it lying down," Lieberman said, Ha'aretz reports.
"Today's events remind us again how Israeli diplomats stand at the forefront of the fight which Israel is leading around the world," he added.
Update at 7:31 a.m. ET: The wife of an Israeli diplomat was moderately wounded in the explosion in New Delhi.
Update at 7:28 a.m. ET: The BBC quotes David Goldfarb, the spokesman for Israel's Delhi embassy, as saying the diplomat's car was outside the embassy in central Delhi when the explosion went off.
The BBC says police in Delhi reports that they are investigating "an incdient" but would not yet confirm any attack took place.
Original posting : The Israeli foreign ministry says its embassy staff was targeted by bombs in Georgia and India, Reuters reports.
Israeli diplomats were also targeted in Amsterdam, according to the Israeli newspaper.
Ha'aretz reports that the bomb in Georgia was defused.
Ha'aretz notes that the reported incidents com one day after the fourth anniversary of slain Hezbollah's deputy leader Imad Mughniyah.
Ha'aretz says Mughniyah was killed when his car exploded in 2008 and Hezbollah blames Israel for his assassination, despite Israel's denial of any involvement.