Indian Reporter Witnessed Attack on Israeli Diplomat's Wife

Joji Philip Thomas, via Yfrog An Indian journalist who witnessed an attack on an Israeli diplomatic car in New Delhi on Monday posted this image online.

Updated | 1:51 p.m. As my colleagues Isabel Kershner and Michael Schwirtz report, Indian officials said a driver and the wife of an Israeli diplomat were injured in a bomb attack on a car close to the Israeli Embassy in New Delhi on Monday.

An Indian journalist, Joji Philip Thomas, reported on Twitter that he witnessed the explosion and transmitted two photographs of the burning vehicle to the Web from his BlackBerry.

The car in front of me just exploded – a foreigner inside got flung to the other side of d road yfrog.com/gz8obrdj

— Joji Philip Thomas (@jojiphilip) February 13, 2012

In a caption for his second photograph, Mr. Thomas wrote: “Here is a shot of people helping the Israeli lady — see how far she was flung.”

Mr. Thomas also reported that the “badly injured” woman “was speaking just after the blast” and “insisted that she be taken to the embassy, not hospital.” He added that he did not post a photograph of her face on Twitter because that would have been unethical.

This video report from The Telegraph includes a statement on the attack from an Indian interior ministry official, and what appears to be raw video of firefighters responding to the attack.

Later on Monday, an Indian television station, Star News, broadcast images of the flames being extinguished and raw video of the authorities examining the car after the flames were extinguished.

According to an Indian news agency, the Delhi police commissioner said later in the day that an eyewitness “saw a single motorcyclist stick an object on the car” before the explosion. Star News also reported that “Delhi police said a motorcycle rider following the car planted the bomb on the back of the car. The police also added that bomb was probably planted with a magnet.” If that information is accurate, the method used in Monday’s attack would seem to echo the manner in which an Iranian scientist was killed in a bomb attack on his car in Tehran last month.

The attack in the Indian capital came the same day that Israeli officials said a bomb was found in a car belonging to a staff member at the country’s embassy in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. That bomb was defused by the police.

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Would Israel attack Iran without U.S. approval?

Ehud Barak and Co. are ratcheting up their rhetoric as Iran's nuclear program continues unchecked — and many U.S. officials don't think our allies are bluffing

Israeli leaders are delivering their "bluntest warnings" yet of possible airstrikes to disable Iran's nuclear program, something the U.S. and other Western leaders fear would uncork dangerous turmoil in the Middle East. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak says time is running out to rein in Iran before it acquires nuclear weapons (although Tehran insists it only wants to produce nuclear energy). Leaders in the U.S. and Europe are hoping to push Iran to the negotiating table with a potentially devastating embargo on Iranian oil, though Israel appears unappeased. Despite President Obama's assurances that the U.S. is working in "lockstep" with its closest ally in the Middle East, would Israel take matters into its own hands and attack Iran without America's okay?

Israel might have no choice: The U.S. and its allies have "been pursuing diplomacy with the Iranians — for years now," says J. Robert Smith at The American Thinker. "What has that approach availed, other than buying time for the Iranians to proceed toward nuclear weapons capability?" More diplomacy and sanctions won't deter Iran's ruling mullahs. Washington might not get it, but Israel knows that "doing nothing — or delaying too long — may result in annihilation."
"Obama or the Israelis: Whom do you believe?"

Don't worry. Israel is probably bluffing: There are reasons to believe Israel's threats "are a bluff designed to spur tougher economic sanctions," says Edmund Sanders in the Los Angeles Times. Experts say "Israel's military lacks the size, breadth, and weaponry needed for the kind of sustained, multi-pronged bombing campaign" it would take to set Iran's nuclear quest back more than a year or two. And Israel's "tough rhetoric" may already be working, by pushing Europe and the U.S. to focus on Iran and impose oil sanctions.
"Israel's intentions toward Iran remain unclear"

Israel means what it says: U.S. officials "doubt that the Israelis are bluffing," says David Ignatius in The Washington Post. "Israeli leaders are said to accept, and even welcome, the prospect of going it alone" in order to demonstrate resolve as the Arab Spring undermines their security. Remember, Israel struck nuclear sites in Syria (2007) and Iraq (1981). If Iran doesn't back down, or if U.S. covert action doesn't do the job, Washington, for one, believes Israel will hit Iran's nuclear sites if that's the only way "to stop Iran from crossing the threshold."
"Is Israel preparing to attack Iran?"

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