Suspected bomber blows his leg off in botched escape bid

Published on Wednesday 15 February 2012 02:28

FLEEING wounded from an explosion in a rented Bangkok house, an Iranian man yesterday threw a grenade at police that rebounded and blew off one of his legs in an incident that is being linked to a terror cell operating in the Thai capital.

The blasts came a day after an Israeli diplomatic car was bombed in India – an attack Tel Aviv blamed on Tehran – as well as a failed car bombing in Georgia on the same day. Those incidents were thought to be attempts at retaliation for the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists by Mossad, the Israeli espionage service.

Thai security forces found more explosives in the house where the Iranian man was staying with two compatriots in Bangkok. One of the other men was arrested later at the airport.

Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak yesterday said the Bangkok violence “proves once again that Iran and its proxies continue to perpetrate terror”.

Yesterday’s sequence of events in Bangkok began when explosives apparently detonated by accident, blowing off part of the roof of the house where the men had been living.

Surveillance footage from just after the blast showed separate images of each of the suspects walking down a residential street. One of the men, wearing a baseball cap and a dark jacket, carried a large backpack over one shoulder and what appeared to be two portable transistor radios, one in each hand. A second suspect, wearing sunglasses, also carried a backpack, while the third, dressed in camouflage shorts, carried nothing.

A passport found at one blast scene identified one of the three as Saeid Moradi from Iran, police general Pansiri Prapawat said.

Moradi tried to wave down a taxi “but the driver refused” Gen Pansiri said. Moradi then threw an explosive that hit the taxi and partially destroyed it.

Gen Pansiri said police responding to the first blast tried to apprehend Moradi, who hurled a grenade at them to defend himself – but it bounced back and blew off one of his legs.

Photos showed the wounded man on a pavement covered in broken glass. He lay in front of a school, head raised as if he was attempting to sit up or look around.

Hospital officials said Moradi’s right leg was severed below the knee, while his left leg was severely wounded.

Last night, security forces at a Bangkok airport detained an Iranian – identified as Mohummad Hazaei – as he tried to board a flight for Malaysia, police said. They said he was one of the three in the house where explosives first went off. A third Iranian is on the run, police said.

Thai government spokeswoman Thitima Chaisaeng said more analysis was needed to determine who was behind the attack and whether Iran was involved. She refused to comment on what the suspects might have been planning.

Speaking during a visit to Singapore, Ehud Barak said Iran and its Lebanese ally, Hezbollah, are “unrelenting terror elements endangering the stability of the region and endangering the stability of the world”.

In India, investigators were searching for what they called a well-trained motorcycle assailant who attached a bomb to an Israeli diplomatic car in New Delhi on Monday, wounding four people when it exploded.

Last month, a Lebanese-Swedish man with alleged links to pro-Iranian Hezbollah militants was detained by Thai police. He led authorities to a warehouse filled with more than 4,000kg of urea fertiliser and several gallons of liquid ammonium nitrate.

Will Hartley, head of the Terrorism & Insurgency Centre at IHS Jane’s, said: “The alleged perpetrator of the attempted attack in Thailand reportedly possessed an Iranian passport, possibly lending credence to Israel’s allegation that Iran is waging some kind of international campaign.

“However, the attacks in India, Georgia and now Thailand have all been highly amateurish, and lack the sophistication that would normally be expected from an operation executed by either Hezbollah or Iran’s own external operations wing, the Quds Force.”