HEZBOLLAH terrorists and the Iranian ambassador are among thousands injured after “brand new” pagers exploded across Lebanon, killing at least nine people.
The booby-trapped devices blew up simultaneously across the Middle Eastern country yesterday afternoon wreaking havoc.
At about 3:30pm local time, the pagers started heating up and then exploding in people’s hands or pockets – leaving blood-splattered scenes.
Lebanon’s Information Minister pinned the shock James Bond-style sabotage on “Israeli aggression”.
Israel’s Mossad spy agency allegedly planted a small amount of explosives inside thousands of pagers ordered by Hezbollah months earlier, a Lebanese security source and a second source told Reuters.
The pagers were said to be a “new brand” that the terrorists had not used before.
Hezbollah reportedly acquired the pagers after the group’s leadership ordered members to stop using phones.
The leadership warned phones could be tracked by Israeli spies – and believed pagers were safer.
Nearly 3,000 people have so far been injured including hundreds of fighters, senior commanders in the terror group, and the Iranian ambassador in Beirut.
Hezbollah received a new shipment of pagers in the last few days with hundreds of their terror troops having the devices, the Wall Street Journal reported.
It is not yet clear what caused the pagers to blow, with some experts saying explosives were inside them and others saying malware could have caused the batteries to overheat and then erupt.
Lebanon’s health minister reported nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 were wounded with 200 of those in a serious condition.
Shocking videos circulating on social media show the wave of blasts striking across the country.
Some pagers rang before exploding – causing the fighter to put their hands on them or bring them up to their faces to check the screen.
In-store CCTV footage caught people struck down in the middle of their shopping as people fled around them.
One shows a man’s bag exploding in a grocer with other shoppers sprinting for their lives away from the man as he is knocked to the ground by the detonation.
Another shows a man paying for items at a till before he checks the pager on his hip and it explodes in his hands.
Other footage showed maimed targets lying on the ground missing hands or fingers and having large wounds on their hips and legs.
Beirut’s street turned to chaos as people fled buildings for safety and the city’s hospitals treated the bloodied survivors.
The sons of Hezbollah lawmakers Ali Ammar and Hassan Fadlallah were among the dead, a source close to the group said.
The blasts “killed nine people, including a girl”, Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said in a casualty update.
The 8-year-old daughter of a Hezbollah member was killed in east Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley when his pager exploded, their family said.
Source: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/30487383/hezbollah-fighters-injured-walkie-talkies-explode/