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Thailand: Iranians planned to attack Israelis

Wreckage of a taxi lies on the road at the explosion of an explosion in Bangkok, Thailand Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2012. Two explosions boomed through a busy neighborhood in the Thai capital Tuesday, police said, but it was not immediately clear what caused the blasts or whether there were any fatalities. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong)

A Thai Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) official makes a check on a backpack that was left on the bomb site by a suspect bomber in Bangkok, Thailand Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2012. Two explosions boomed through a busy neighborhood in the Thai capital Tuesday, police said, but it was not immediately clear what caused the blasts or whether there were any fatalities. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong)

A Thai Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) official examines a backpack that was left on the bomb site by a suspect bomber in Bangkok, Thailand Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2012. Thai police say two explosions have occurred in a Bangkok neighborhood. But it was not immediately clear what caused the blasts or wether there were an fatalities. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong)

In this combination of images made from surveillance video on Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2012, and released by the Spokesman Office of the National Thai Police, three Iranian bomb suspects, identified by police from left, as Saeid Moradi, Mohummad Hazaei and Zedhaghat Zadech Masoud, walk down the middle of a residential street in Bangkok, Thailand, after the first blast at an explosives-filled house where the three were staying. Moradi was injured and four civilians were wounded Tuesday in a series of explosions in Bangkok. (AP Photo/Spokesman Office of National Thai Police)

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By THANYARAT DOKSONE, The Associated Press Updated 10:41 PM Wednesday, February 15, 2012

BANGKOK — Thailand's police chief said the Iranians who were arrested after accidentally setting off 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.

"I can tell you that the target was specific and aimed at Israeli diplomatic staff," police chief Gen. Prewpan Dhamapong told a Thai television station late Wednesday.

He also confirmed that the type of explosive — a homemade "sticky" bomb — found at the blast site Tuesday matched the devices planted on Israeli diplomatic cars in India and Georgia a day earlier.

"The type of improvised explosives they used were the same. The type that was attached to vehicles," he said, confirming that an investigation into a magnetic strip found in Bangkok was the same type used in New Delhi.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the violence, while Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast called the allegations baseless and said Israel was trying to damage his country's relations with Thailand and fuel conspiracy theories.

Thailand's government says it is still trying to piece together what happened when a group of three Iranian men accidentally detonated explosives at a home they had rented in Bangkok's busy Sukhumvit Road area a day earlier. Bomb disposal teams combed the Iranians' house again Wednesday looking for more evidence, while security forces were searching for an Iranian woman they said had originally rented it.

Two of the men were detained in Bangkok on Tuesday after fleeing the destroyed house, while a third was arrested Wednesday in neighboring Malaysia after boarding a flight from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur overnight.

Israel has accused Iran of waging a campaign of state terror and has threatened military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. Iran has blamed the Jewish state for the recent killings of Iranian atomic scientists and has denied responsibility for all three plots this week.

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February 16, 2012 03:36 AM EST

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