3 Dead, 100 Injured As Walkie-Talkies Explode In Hezbollah Units In Lebanon

Beirut:

Three people have died as walkie-talkies have blown up across Hezbollah strongholds across Lebanon. This comes a day after pagers exploded across the middle-eastern country, killing twelve people and injuring more than 2,800 others.

How many walkie-talkies blew up are not know yet. There are reports that landline telephones are blowing up too at various locations in East Lebanon.

According to reports, the hand-held wireless radio devices and walkie-talkies were bought around five months ago, approximately the same time as the pagers.

Today's blasts happened across southern Lebanon as well as Beirut's suburbs. At least one of the blasts happened near a funeral organised by Hezbollah for people who were killed in yesterday's pager blasts.

Iran-backed Hezbollah said today that it attacked Israeli artillery positions with rockets in the first strike at its arch-rival since pager blasts wounded thousands of its members in Lebanon and raised the prospect of a wider Middle East war.

Israel's spy agency Mossad, which has a long history of sophisticated operations on foreign soil, planted explosives inside pagers imported by Hezbollah months before Tuesday's detonations, a senior Lebanese security source and another source told news agency Reuters.

This morning Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad confirmed that twelve people were killed and around 2,800 wounded in the incident.

The minister, in a televised press conference, said the blasts "killed twelve people, including a girl", adding that "About 2,800 people were injured and more than 200 of them critically". The injuries were mostly on the face, hands and stomach, he had said.

Iran's state media had reported that its Ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was also wounded in yesterday's pager incident.

Hezbollah, which is banned both by the United States and the European Union is the political and military establishment in Lebanon and is backed by Iran. Hezbollah backs Hamas, which has been at war with Israel in Gaza since October 2023.

Hezbollah had on Tuesday blamed Israel for the attack and has claimed that this is the "biggest security breach" it has faced yet.

Just like the pagers, all the walkie-talkie devices also exploded at the same time, Hezbollah has claimed.

Hezbollah had called the blasts an "Israeli breach" of its communications network, and has vowed to avenge the attack.

WHO MADE THESE DEVICES?

Initial reports suggested that the pagers were made by a Taiwanese company, but the firm has denied this. The Taiwanese pager manufacturer - Gold Apollo - said that the devices were made under a licence by a company called BAC, which is situated in Budapest, the capital city of Hungary.