Thailand charges two Iranians over bombings

Thai investigators have said they have found a link between this week's bomb blasts in Bangkok and New Delhi.

Israel has blamed Iran for the three botched attacks against Israeli targets in the capitals of Thailand, India and Georgia.

Iran has rejected accusations that it is to blame.

In Thailand, two Iranians have been charged with involvement in a string of blasts in Bangkok yesterday.

One of the men, named as 28-year-old Saeid Morati, had a leg blown off as he threw an explosive device at Thai police while fleeing an earlier blast at a house, officials said. His other leg was later amputated.

A second Iranian suspect was detained trying to board a flight out of the country, while a third suspect is believed to have fled to Malaysia, Thai police said.

Explosives and magnets were later found inside the partially destroyed house, police added.

Asked whether the explosives used in India and Thailand were the same, a senior Thai security official said they both had the same "magnetic sheets".

"We are currently examining the source of the magnet," National Security Council Secretary Wichian Podphosri said.

"These three Iranian men are an assassination team and their targets were Israeli diplomats including the ambassador," another senior Thai intelligence official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Their plan was to attach bombs to diplomats' cars" he added.

The two suspects were charged with causing an illegal explosion and attempting to kill police officers and members of the public, Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul told reporters.

"We cannot say yet if it's a terrorist act," he said, "but it's similar to the assassination attempt against a diplomat in India."

In the Bangkok attack, one bomb went off in the bombers' home.

Another was thrown at a taxi that would not take him. The third blew off the bomber's leg when he tried to throw it at police.

Israeli officials said an attempt to bomb an embassy car in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi failed and the device was defused.

On Monday, a bomb wrecked a car taking an Israeli embassy official in New Dehli to pick up her children from school. The woman is in stable condition after surgery to her spine and liver.