After Pager, Walkie-Talkie Blasts Kill 9 in Lebanon
NEW DELHI, Sept 18: A day after explosion of pagers, at least 9 people were killed and more than 300 others wounded as walkie-talkies have blown up at Hezbollah strongholds across Lebanon on Wednesday. At least 12 were killed and over 3,000 others were injured in explosion of pagers across the middle-eastern country on Tuesday.
How many walkie-talkies blew up are not known yet. There are reports that landline telephones exploded 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.
Wednesday’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 a member who was killed in yesterday’s pager blasts.
Iran-backed Hezbollah said 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 sources said. 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. Hezbollah also said it would continue to support Hamas in Gaza and that Israel should wait for a response for the “massacre.”
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 the devices were made under a licence by a company called BAC, which is situated in Budapest, the capital city of Hungary.
Though Israel has not commented on the blasts, it had said it was widening the spectrum of its war with Hamas in Gaza to include its fight against its ally Hezbollah. Israel had made this statement hours before the blasts on Tuesday. Calling it as a “massacre” and “criminal aggression”, Hezbollah said Israel is “fully responsible” for these attacks.
(Manas Dasgupta)
