Nine killed, 2,750 wounded across Lebanon as Hezbollah pagers explode

At least nine people were killed and about 2,750 were wounded by exploding handheld pagers across Lebanon, the country’s health minister has said.

Firass Abiad said that an eight-year-old girl was among those killed and that more than 200 people are in critical condition after the communication devices exploded on Tuesday, with injuries mostly reported to the face, hands and stomach.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah blamed Israel for the spree of pager blasts, saying it will get “its fair punishment”, according to a statement released by the Iran-backed group which has been exchanging almost daily cross-border fire with Israel for almost a year.There was no comment on the blasts from the Israeli military.

Hezbollah said in an earlier statement on Tuesday that two of its fighters and a girl were killed as “pagers belonging to employees of various Hezbollah units and institutions exploded”.

A Hezbollah official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the explosion of the pagers was the “biggest security breach” the group has experienced since October 7, when Israel’s war on Gaza began following the Hamas-led attacks on Israel.

Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was among those injured by the pager explosions on Tuesday, Iran’s Mehr news agency reported.

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told a regular news briefing the United States was not involved in the incidents and did not know who was responsible.

“We are gathering information on this incident,” Miller said. “I can tell you that the US was not involved in it. The US was not aware of this incident in advance.”

(Al-Jazeera)

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