Thai police quiz three more Iranians over bomb plot

BANGKOK (AFP)— Thai police said on Monday they were questioning three more Iranians in connection with an alleged plot to kill Israeli diplomats in Bangkok.

"We have information that they may have links to the blasts," Police Major General Piya Utayo told AFP, referring to a series of botched explosions that shook a residential district of the Thai capital on February 14.

He said no charges had been laid against the trio. One was detained under immigration law for overstaying his visa.

"We are checking the other two people's backgrounds," Piya added.

According to Thai media, mobile telephone call logs showed that one of the suspects had been in regular contact with two Iranians now in custody, one of whom had his legs blown off as he hurled a bomb at police while fleeing.

The new suspects were picked up in a raid Sunday on two rooms in an apartment tower in eastern Bangkok.

Another suspect was detained earlier this month in Malaysia, while arrest warrants have been issued for two more Iranians believed to have left the country.

Israel has blamed Iran over the Bangkok blasts, as well as attacks on Israeli embassy staff in India and Georgia a day earlier.

Tehran has rejected accusations that it is behind a terror campaign against the Jewish state.

Thai police have said they believe that Israeli diplomats were the intended target of the botched plot but have yet to produce hard evidence.

Last week Tehran said it was ready to help identify those responsible.

Bangkok has been on alert since mid-January when police arrested a Lebanese man with alleged links to Hezbollah on suspicion he was planning an attack, following a US warning that tourists might be targeted.

The safety scares dealt a new blow to the kingdom's tourism industry, still recovering from the fallout of months of devastating floods last year, as well as several rounds of political unrest in recent years.