Hezbollah denies role in Israel diplomat attacks

BEIRUT — Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday denied his Lebanese militant party had any role in a series of attacks on Israeli diplomats.

"Regarding the explosions that took place in India, Georgia and Thailand, I can tell you categorically that Hezbollah has nothing to do" with them, he said in a televised address.

Nasrallah said Hezbollah would find other ways to take revenge for the killing of top Hezbollah militants Imad Mughniyeh on February 12, 2008, in the speech marking that occasion.

"Our revenge will not (be) against soldiers and Israeli diplomats or ordinary Israelis," said the Hezbollah chief, without elaborating.

"The day will come when we shall avenge Imad Mughniyeh with honour," he said.

Israel has accused Iran of being behind the attacks, a charge the Islamic republic promptly denied.

Thai police said that Israeli diplomats were the intended target of a failed bomb attack in Bangkok on Tuesday, a day after attacks on Israeli embassy staff in India and Georgia.

The Jerusalem Post on Thursday linked a Hezbollah-Iranian "terror" cell to another plot to assassinate Israel's defence minister in Singapore, but the report was denied by police in the Asian city-state.

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.