Massive pager explosion in Lebanon: nearly three thousand people injured, including children

On Tuesday, September 17, pagers used by hundreds of members of the Hezbollah militant group exploded in Lebanon and Syria. The incident killed at least 9 people. In addition, it is already known about almost three dozen wounded. This was reported by Associated Press, UNN.

Details

A Hezbollah spokesman told the Associated Press that the pagers are a new brand that the group has not used before. It is noted that the devices were  purchased by Hezbollah after the group's leader ordered members to stop using cell phones.

He was afraid that they could be tracked by Israeli intelligence.  

At approximately 15:30 local time on Tuesday, the pagers began to heat up and then explode in the pockets and hands of those carrying them, particularly in the southern suburbs of Beirut and the Bekaa region of eastern Lebanon.

Hezbollah blamed Israel and its intelligence services for the incident, but Jerusalem has not commented on the situation.

Lebanon's Health Minister Firas Abiad said that at least nine people, including an 8-year-old girl, were killed in the explosions, and 2,750 were injured, 200 of them in serious condition. Most of them had wounds to the face, arms or around the abdomen

Addendum

Hezbollah acknowledged that at least two of the dead were members of the group. A Hezbollah official who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity identified one of the dead as Mahdi Ammar, the son of a member of the group in the Lebanese parliament.

Also, the Iranian state news agency IRNA reported that the country's ambassador, Mojtaba Amani, was superficially injured in a pager explosion and is in the hospital.

Recall

The National Security and Defense Council's Center for Countering Disinformation denied the fake about the injury of the first secretary of the Ukrainian Embassy in Lebanon as a result of an explosion in Beirut. They also added that there were no Ukrainian citizens among the victims.