Bangkok blasts raise fears of Iranian terror in Asia
Bangkok – Three explosions rattled downtown Bangkok yesterday, a day after bombers targeted Israeli Embassy staff in India and Georgia, and police announced that at least one of the suspects in Thailand’s capital was an Iranian.
Israeli officials quickly blamed Iran for the afternoon blasts, which authorities said injured the Iranian and four Thais.
‘‘I would like to ask the people not to panic,’’ Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said as security was stepped up throughout Bangkok. ‘‘The authorities have now arrested an attacker.’’
Thai police said an explosive device detonated in a home rented by Iranians in downtown Bangkok’s Sukhumvit Rd area. Two men in the house managed to escape; a third reportedly tried to flag a taxi, which refused to stop because he was covered in blood.
The man then threw a grenade at the taxi, injuring the driver. As police closed in, he threw another grenade at them, but it detonated near him, blowing off a leg.
Police arrested the man, identified as Saci Morabi, 50, and took him to hospital, where he was questioned. A hunt followed for the other two suspects.
A man thought to be one of them, Mohamed Hazaei or Hasahi, 41, was arrested at Bangkok’s international airport trying to board a flight to Malaysia.
Government spokeswoman Thitima Chaiseng said the police found papers indicating the injured suspect was Iranian. ‘‘However, we do not know yet about the second and third men.’’
The blasts followed an attack on Monday on an Israeli diplomatic vehicle in New Delhi, which injured four people, and a failed attempt to blow up an Israeli vehicle in Tblisi, Georgia.
On a trip to Singapore, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said the Bangkok incident proved ‘‘once again that Iran and its proxies are continuing to perpetrate terrorism.’’ Iran denied involvement in any of the incidents.
Rohan Gunaratna, head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, said the two days of explosions suggested the start of an Asian terror wave by Hizbollah operatives.