Iranians who accidentally set off 'sticky' bombs intended to target individuals, according to investigators
Thai police have said three Iranians, arrested after accidentally setting off homemade explosives at their rented home in Bangkok, were plotting to attack Israeli diplomats, bolstering claims by Israel that the group was part of an Iranian-backed network of terror.
But Thailand's deputy prime minister, Chalerm Yubamrung, said the three men were not linked to Hezbollah as the bombs were not designed for large-scale destruction.
"It was not a terrorist act, it was just an act to demonstrate some insignificant symbol," he told reporters.
Police chief General Prewpan Dhamapong told a Thai television station late on Wednesday that the bombers' "target was specific and aimed at Israeli diplomatic staff", hours after a senior official told the Guardian that the men were more likely would-be assassins than terrorists.
Prewpan confirmed that the DIY "sticky" bombs found at the blast site in the leafy Ekkamai neighbourhood of east Bangkok matched the devices that were planted a day earlier on Israeli diplomatic cars in India and Georgia, causing injuries but no deaths.
"The type of improvised explosives they used were the same. The type that was attached to vehicles," Prewpan said, adding that a magnetic strip found in Bangkok was the same type used in New Delhi.
Bomb squads scouring the two-storey house found two DIY bombs in the form of portable radios, stuffed with C4 explosives whose "kill radius" extends to five metres, the Nation reported. Hand grenades were to be used as the bombs' detonator.
The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has denounced Tuesday's violence in Bangkok, while Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast has called the allegations against Iran baseless and declared Israel is trying to damage his country's relations with Thailand and fuel conspiracy theories.
Thailand's government says it is still piecing together what happened when the men accidentally detonated the homemade explosives, blowing off the roof and sending the trio running into the street.
One of the men, Saied Moradi, emerged from the house bloody and disorientated, according to eyewitnesses, then threw an explosive at a taxi, injuring four Thais. He tried to throw another at police but blew his own leg off instead – the other was amputated later in hospital, where he is still in critical condition.
Bomb disposal teams combed the Iranians' house again on Wednesday looking for more evidence, while security forces were searching for an Iranian woman they said had originally rented it. Local media reported that the woman, named as Rohani Leila, 28, left Thailand on 5 February.
Two of the men who fled the destroyed house on Tuesday have been detained by Thai police, including Moradi, while a third was arrested on Wednesday in neighbouring Malaysia after boarding a flight from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur overnight. Thai authorities have said the men face charges of illegal use of explosives and attempting to kill others including officials on duty, but not terrorism charges.
The travel company that helped facilitate the Thai visas for the four suspects is being investigated by police, the Thai-Asean News Network reported.
Israel has accused Iran of waging a campaign of state terror and has threatened military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. Iran in turn has blamed Israel for the recent killings of Iranian atomic scientists and denied responsibility for this week's incidents in India, Georgia and Thailand.
A number of countries have issued travel advisories for Thailand, among them the US, UK, Ireland, Australia and Canada, while in Bangkok security has been increased at transportation hubs, shopping malls and popular tourist spots throughout the city, including Khao San road, local media have reported.
The Jewish temple on Sukhumvit 22 has been under 24-hour police watch after a Lebanese-Swedish man with alleged links to pro-Iranian Hezbollah was detained by police at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport last month. Authorities later discovered a warehouse filled with nearly four tonnes of urea fertiliser and several gallons of liquid ammonium nitrate.
Authorities said then that Thailand appeared to be a staging ground but not the target of an attack.