The New York Times reports from Bangkok: A series of explosions rocked a residential neighborhood here on Tuesday, leading Thai authorities to a cache of bombs in a rented house and the capture of two men identified in Thai media reports as Iranians. A third suspect was being sought.
Witnesses said the three men, all of whom appeared to be foreigners, fled a house in the Sukhumvit neighborhood of Bangkok after an explosion in the early afternoon tore off the roof of the house. Two of the men ran immediately from the house, witnesses said; one was later detained at the city’s main international airport. The third man emerged shortly after the first two, seeming disoriented, with his face and ears bloodied, they said. As the third man tried to leave the area, he threw two grenades, one at a taxi and one at approaching police officers. The blast from the second struck him, however, blowing off his legs and injuring several Thais.
As of late Tuesday no evidence had emerged connecting the explosions in Bangkok with the escalating tensions between Iran and Israel. But the Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak, linked the explosions with the attacks on Israeli Embassy personnel on Monday in the capitals of India and Georgia, which Israel blamed on Iran and on Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based militant group Iran backs.
“The attempted terrorist attack in Bangkok proves once again that Iran and its proxies continue to perpetrate terrorism,” Mr. Barak said. “The recent terror attacks are yet another example of this.” Mr. Barak, who had been in Bangkok for a few hours on Sunday, made his comments Tuesday in Singapore, according to a statement from his office. “Iran and Hezbollah are unrelenting terror elements endangering the stability of the region and the stability of the world,” Mr. Barak added.
It’s a bit soon to talk about the geostrategic implications of whatever happened in Bangkok. Whoever these guys were, they clearly didn’t belong to anyone’s A-team. The only thing they seemed to have to had a talent in was unintentionally blowing themselves up.
I certainly think the Iranians could do better than the alleged plot against the Saudi ambassador in Washington, the failed attacks in India and Georgia (by the way, how does anyone in this world get close enough to an Israeli embassy car to place a bomb under it?) and now this fiasco in Bangkok. By the time we get the truth on these and other incidents still in the offing, the war will already be underway. As a matter of fact, it seems the war began some time ago, on Iranian soil.
“Iran and Hezbollah are unrelenting terror elements endangering the stability of the region and the stability of the world”
From the Land of Smiles -The Bangkok Post:
Despite Mr Barak’s accusations against Teheran, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said yesterday Israel was in contact with the authorities in Bangkok and was still awaiting confirmation that the man involved in the blasts was indeed Iranian.
The Bangkok Post also cited a Mr. Hartley who reflects that
the attacks in India, Georgia and now Thailand have all been highly amateurish.”[They] 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.”
In my understanding bombers like the devices themselves usually have an identifying signature. Add to the list the taxi driver hit man incident in the U.S. there does seem to be a pattern forming.