BEIRUT: Hundreds of people were wounded on Wednesday in fresh blasts involving communication pagers used by Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, a security source said.
Many of the wounds were to the stomach and hands, the source said.
Communications devices used by Lebanon’s armed group Hezbollah detonated late Wednesday afternoon across the country’s south and in the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut, a security source and a witness said
The source said it was not clear if the equipment was pagers. At least one of the blasts heard took place near a funeral organized by Hezbollah for those killed the previous day when thousands of pagers used by the group detonated across the country.
Earlier, Hezbollah vowed to retaliate Israel after the pager blasts in Hezbollah strongholds claimed nine lives and wounded nearly 3000.
Hezbollah switched to using pagers in recent months in an effort to avoid Israeli tracking of their locations. Explosives were hidden in the Gold Apollo pagers next to the battery. They were configured to be triggered remotely to detonate. Two Hezbollah fighters were also injured in Syria, where blasts occurred simultaneously.