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Day after pager explosion, walkie-talkies blow up in Hezbollah strongholds of Beirut; several casualties feared

by Trans World Features | @twfindia 18 Sep 2024, 11:15 am

Beirut: A day after pagers exploded across Lebanon, killing nine people and injuring more than 2,800 others, walkie-talkie blasts were reported across Beirut in places regarded as the militant outfit Hezbollah stronghold, media reports said.

The total number of walkie-talkies that blew up is not known yet, but the explosion may have left casualties.

Iran-backed Hezbollah earlier in the day claimed to have attacked Israeli artillery positions with rockets as a response to pager blasts that injured thousands of its members in Lebanon and triggered fear 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 that were imported by Hezbollah months before Tuesday's detonations, Reuters reported quoting a senior Lebanese security source and another source.

Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad has confirmed that the blasts left nine people dead and around 2,800 wounded.

Iran's state media had reported that its Ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was also injured in the pager explosion.

Hezbollah, which is banned both by the United States and the European Union, is a political and military establishment in Lebanon. The group is backed by Iran.

Hezbollah, meanwhile, backs Hamas, which has been at war with Israel in Gaza since October 2023.