Iran's Revolutionary Guard behind attack on Israeli embassy car in New Delhi, says India Police

The Times of India newspaper published a report of an India Police investigation into the February attack, in which Tali Yehoshua-Koren, the wife of the Defense Ministry's representative to India, was injured.

                       

An injured person is carried from a burning car belonging to the Israeli Embassy in flames after an explosion, in New Delhi, India, February 13, 2012.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard was behind the February terrorist attack on the Israeli Embassy in New Delhi, an investigation by India Police has found.

In the incident, which took place on February 13, 2012, Tali Yehoshua-Koren, the wife of the Defense Ministry's representative to India, was injured.

The Times of India newspaper, which published the findings of the investigation, reported that members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard began speaking with Indian journalist Syed Mohammad Ahmad Kazmi about the possibility of carrying out an attack against Israeli diplomats in New Delhi as early as February 2011, over a year before the attack. At the time, a number of Iranian nuclear scientists were assassinated, and Tehran blamed Israel for the deaths.

The investigation found that Kazmi, who is so far the only person who has been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the attack, had been in contact with the Iranian regime for at least ten years.

Indian security forces have tried in recent months to get information from the Iranians about a number of Iranian citizens that are suspected of being involved. India Police has sent detailed letters to Iran asking for help in the investigation, although to date Iran has not cooperated.

The Indians gave the Iranians a list of five people that are suspected of belonging to the Revolutionary Guard. According to the report in the Indian newspaper, the main suspect in the attack is Houshang Afshar Irani. Irani says he is a professional builder, although he acted as the motorcyclist who attached the bomb to the car of the Israeli embassy representative in the attack.

Another suspect is Sedaghatzadeh Masoud, who commanded the cell that carried out the attack. India Police identified Masoud as a sales person in a Tehran-based company. According to suspicions, he was a planner of a wave of attacks in New Delhi, Bangkok and Tbilisi.

India Police identified a number of other suspects involved in the attack, Syed Ali Mahdiansadr, the owner of a Tehran cell-phone shop, Mohammad Reza Abolghasemi, a Tehran government clerk, and Ali Akbar Norouzishayan, a retired accountant from Iran's capital.

Another suspect is Leila Rohani, who is also suspected of being involved in the attack in New Delhi, as well as Bangkok, and has managed an escape to Iran to avoid arrest.

Former U.S. envoy to UN: Israel poised to strike Iran after Bulgaria attack

Former envoy John Bolton says Israel will go after Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

Former United States Ambassador to the UN John Bolton believes that Israel is poised to launch a direct attack on Iran in the wake of yesterday’s terrorist bombing in Bulgaria.

Appearing on Fox News, Bolton said that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s unequivocal accusation that Iran is responsible for the attack “gives every indication” that such an attack is in offing. Bolton went even further, saying that by not mentioning Hezbollah, Netanyahu was “very clearly saying that Israel will not just respond proportionately but will go after several facilities of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.”

Bolton, who is serving as one of Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s foreign policy advisers, also said that although he does not believe that Israel intends to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities at this juncture, but that any strike against Iran would lead to a “major escalation in the region” which might entail an attack against Tehran’s nuclear infrastructure. Bolton added that he expects that US forces in the area will be put on alert following the Bulgaria attack.

Officials: Iranians targeted sites in Kenya

Two Iranians who led authorities to a cache of explosives after their arrest planned to attack Israeli, U.S., British or Saudi targets inside Kenya.

 The two are believed to be members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force, an elite and secretive unit that acts against foreign interests, one of the officials said.

The foiled attack appeared to fit into a global pattern of alleged plots by Iranian agents. Previous plots were uncovered in the U.S. — against Saudi Arabia’s ambassador — as well as in Thailand, Azerbaijan and India.

Kenyan security forces arrested the Iranians on June 19 and were then led to 15 kilograms (33 pounds) of RDX, a powerful explosive that could have been used against multiple targets or concentrated in one large bomb. If used together, the explosives could have leveled a medium-sized hotel, officials told AP. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation.

The two suspects — Ahmad Abolfathi Mohammad and Sayed Mansour Mousavi — appeared in a Kenyan court last week, where Mohammad said he had been interrogated by Israeli agents. Israel’s embassy said it had no comment.

In Israel, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the AP that “there are no limits to the Iranian terror.”

“After Iran sent its people to assassinate the Saudi ambassador on American soil and carry out attacks in Azerbaijan, Bangkok, Tbilisi and New Delhi, now its intention to carry out attacks in Africa is revealed. The international community needs to fight the world’s greatest exporter of terror,” said a statement from Netanyahu’s office.

Given the previous alleged plots against Israeli interests overseas, it appeared likely that Israeli properties in Kenya were the likely primary targets, said one of the two officials, a Western diplomat.

Anthony Cordesman, a Middle East expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the alleged plot fits into a pattern of Iranian actions against Israel.

Israel wants Iran to be prevented from developing a nuclear weapon. Tehran insists its nuclear activities are for peaceful purposes only, such as generating electricity and medical research.

Five Iranian scientists with links to Tehran’s nuclear program have been killed in the last two years, and Iran has blamed Israel — as well as U.S. and British intelligence agencies — for the attacks. In return, Israel blames Iran for alleged reprisal missions on Israeli property and personnel overseas.

Iran has denied any links to attacks outside its borders.

“It is much more likely if they were to do anything in Africa that they would try to find Israeli targets rather than U.S., British or Saudi targets,” Cordesman said. “The reason basically is that to some extent, there is an al-Quds operation against Israel, which is a reprisal to Israeli attacks on Iranian physicists and scientists.”

Several resorts on Kenya’s coast are Israeli-owned, as is Nairobi’s largest and newest shopping mall. Militants in 2002 bombed an Israeli-owned luxury hotel near the coastal city of Mombasa, killing 13 people. The militants also tried to shoot down an Israeli airliner at the same time. An al-Qaida operative was linked to those attacks.

Representatives at the U.S. Embassy, the British High Commission and the Israeli Embassy declined to comment on the latest arrests. Kenya’s government spokesman did not answer phone calls or text messages seeking comment.

Investigators believe that if the Iranian plot had been successful, suspicion would have naturally fallen not on Iran but instead on the al-Qaida-linked Somali militant group al-Shabab. Al-Shabab has threatened to bring Nairobi’s skyscrapers to the ground following Kenya’s military push into Somalia last year.

Militants — most likely from Somalia — have pulled off small-scale attacks in Kenya in the last year, including kidnappings, grenade attacks and a bombing in downtown Nairobi that peeled back the roof of a building.

It is unlikely the Iranians were working in concert with al-Shabab because the two groups come from two different branches of Islam and don’t normally cooperate.

The advanced explosives the Iranians had and their links to the Quds Force would indicate the mission in Kenya was cleared by the highest levels inside Iran’s government, the two officials who spoke to the AP said.

Cordesman said it’s not clear how much central direction Quds operatives receive from top Iranian leaders.

The two Iranians were arrested in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, but led investigators to the explosives in Mombasa. Mohammad said in court last week that he and Mousavi were injected with an unknown substance against their will. The Kenyan magistrate ordered the allegation to be investigated.

Prosecutors said in their charge sheet that the two had explosives “in circumstances that indicated they were armed with the intent to commit a felony, namely, acts intended to cause grievous harm.”

Despite the threats that the Iranian agents appeared to pose, the Kenyan government has not directly commented on the arrests or the discovery of the explosives.

Yusuf Haji, Kenya’s acting internal security minister and current defense minister, was asked at a news conference Friday about the case, but he said the issue was “sensitive” and that he had no comment while the court case was ongoing. Haji said more information would be revealed when the prosecution presents its evidence.

Kenyan officials have an economic incentive to treat the case delicately. Kenya’s Business Daily reported Monday that Tehran and Nairobi will sign oil contracts next month despite the risk of sanctions for buying Iranian oil. Iran’s first vice president visited Kenya in May.

David Kirimi, a lawyer who represents the Iranians, said in court last week that their arrests could harm relations between Kenya and Iran. The prosecutor said he was pressing a case against a specific crime and was not concerned with diplomacy.

Mohammad alleged in court that — in addition to the injection — he was tortured, although he described only difficult living conditions, such as having to sleep on a cement floor.

Other overseas plots believed to have been carried out by Iranian agents include bomb plans in Thailand, an attack against the wife of an Israeli diplomat in India, and the targeting of Israeli teachers at a Jewish school in Azerbaijan.

Iran: 'Long-Range' Missiles Attack 'Mock Enemy Bases'

The Iranian military has launched a barrage of missiles at "mock enemy bases" as part of a major war games exercise aimed at dissuading any potential outsider attack, the nation's state-run media reported today.

During what is called "The Great Prophet 7" drills, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) "targeted and destroyed hypothetical bases of ultra-regional forces set up in desert areas," according to Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency. The reports did not identify the "ultra-regional forces" but alluded to the ongoing diplomatic conflict between Iran and the U.S., which has several major military installations in the region.

"The main aim of this drill was to demonstrate the Iranian nation's political resolve to defend [its] vital values and national interests," IRGC Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami said, according to another state-run news outlet, Press TV. Press TV paraphrased Salami's description of the drills as a "firm response to those who threaten Iran with the option of military action."

The United States and Israel have for years been locked in a struggle with Iran over its nuclear enrichment program and the leaders of both the Israeli and American governments have said that any option -- including military action -- was "on the table" should it become clear Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons. Iranian officials have denied the nation seeks nuclear weapons and said Iran is only enriching uranium for domestic nuclear power purposes.

A day before the drills, Iran's foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi told another state media outlet, ISNA, that there is "no option" to end the nuclear conflict except a "diplomatic and political" one. Any other option, he said, would not be sought by a "sane" person.

"We have repeatedly emphasized that we are seeking interaction and do not welcome confrontation, but if they want to act unwisely, they must be aware that the Islamic Republic of Iran will gloriously defend its integrity..." he said, according to Tehran Times. "However, I believe that we will not get to that point."

Press TV said that several different missile types were tested, including the Shabab-3, which reportedly has an operational range of over 900 miles, meaning it could reach potential targets throughout the Middle East. The U.S. and its allies have several military bases in the region, including the home of the Navy's 5th Fleet in Bahrain, a little over 120 miles from Iran's southern border. Israel's eastern border is about 600 miles from Iran's mainland.

While the Iranian news reports described some of the missiles as "long-range," none of those described are believed to have a range anywhere near what the U.S. military considers long range -- a term usually reserved for intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of hitting targets more than 3,400 miles away.

The new drills also coincided with fresh tensions that followed a new round of harsh sanctions against Iran that targeted Iran's oil exports to Europe. Dozens of Iranian lawmakers have reportedly called on the Iranian military to shut down the Strait of Hormuz -- a narrow, strategic waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea through which an estimated one-fifth of the world's oil travels. Today The New York Times reported that the U.S. military has quietly strengthened its presence near the Strait of Hormuz as a precaution against such an action.

Iran to fire missiles in desert war games

Iran's Revolutionary Guards announced they are to fire ballistic and other missiles at desert targets during three days of war games starting Monday in a warning to threats of military action by Israel and the United States.

"Long-, medium- and short-range surface-to-surface missiles will be fired from different locations in Iran... at replica airbases like those used by out-of-region military forces," the head of the Guards aerospace division in charge of missile systems, Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, said.

"These manoeuvres send a message to the adventurous nations that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps is standing up to bullies alongside the determined and unified Iranian nation, and will decisively respond to any trouble they cause," he was quoted as saying by the Guards' official Sepah News website.

Although Iran frequently holds war games, these exercises appeared to underline Tehran's threat to strike US military bases in neighbouring countries -- in Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia -- if it comes under attack by Israel or the United States.

Tel Aviv and Washington have said that military action against Iran remains an option if diplomacy and sanctions fail to convince the Islamic republic to curb its sensitive nuclear programme.

Hajizadeh said the war games, titled Great Prophet 7, would "test the accuracy of missile warheads and systems" by hitting the mock camps in the Kavir Desert in central Iran.

He mentioned two types of ballistic missiles that would be used: the Qiam, which has an estimated range of around 500 kilometres (300 miles), or 750 kilometres according to Iranian media; and the Khalij Fars anti-ship missile, which has a range of 300 kilometres.

Tehran refers to its ballistic missiles as "long-range" although other world militaries qualify them as "short-range".

The longest-range ballistic missile Iran possesses in its arsenal is the medium-range Shahab-3 which, with a range of up to 2,000 kilometres, is capable of hitting Israel. There was no indication in Hajizadeh's remarks that a Shahab-3 would be used in the manoeuvres.