NSG team to investigate blast at Israel embassy

New Delhi : A team from the NSG's Bomb Data Centre - which collects, collates and evaluates all terrorist-related bombings in India and abroad - will analyse fragments of the IED that was detonated outside the Israeli embassy in central Delhi on Friday evening.

The NSG team visited the blast site on Saturday to collect these fragments. Forensics teams had earlier found evidence that ammonium nitrate was used in the IED; this appears to rule out the presence of RDX, sources said, explaining that the blast impact would have been larger in that case.

Delhi Police sources said the blast could be a "trial run" - a prelude to a larger attack - and part of a "big conspiracy" to send a message from Iran to Israel. Several possible leads, including a letter to Ron Malka, the Israeli ambassador, have been identified.

Ahead of the attack, the Israeli government issued a directive for increased vigilance at its embassies around the world - due to fears of an Iranian attack.

The letter, found 12 metres from the blast site, mentions the word "trailer" and Qasem Soleimani (a top Iranian military commander) and Mohsen Fakhrizadeh (an Iranian nuclear scientist).

Both Soleimani and Fakhrizadeh were killed last year; the former in a January drone strike ordered by former US President Donald Trump, and the latter in November in an attack on his car.

Following recovery of the letter and reports that Israel suspects the hand of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard in this attack, Delhi Police has asked the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) to provide details of Iranian visitors to the national capital in the last few weeks.

The police and other agencies investigating the blast are also searching places in the city where suspects may be hiding, sources said, adding officials from Israeli agencies were en route to assist.