HEZBOLLAH has vowed revenge after terrorists’ pagers exploded in a rumoured Israeli attack – killing nine and injuring thousands.
Hundreds of pagers used by Hezbollah terrorists exploded almost simultaneously in Lebanon and Syria yesterday.
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The blasts killed at least nine people including an 8-year-old girl and wounded nearly 3,000 others, officials said.
Hezbollah blamed Israeli spies for allegedly booby-trapping the pagers with explosives – vowing to deliver “just punishment”.
In a statement, Hezbollah said: “We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression.
“Israel will certainly receive its just punishment for this sinful aggression.”
A Lebanese security source and a second source claimed Israel’s Mossad spy agency had planted a small amount of explosives inside thousands of pagers ordered by Hezbollah months earlied.
Among those wounded were dozens of Hezbollah fighters and Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon.
The pagers had apparently been acquired by Hezbollah after the group’s leader ordered members to stop using phones in February.
The leadership warned phones could be tracked by Israeli spies – favouring pagers in the belief they were more secure.
A Hezbollah source said the pagers were “brand new” and had not been used by fighters before.
The pagers started heating up and then exploding in people’s hands or pockets at 3.30pm yesterday afternoon.
The blasts left blood-splattered scenes sent bystanders running for cover.
It appeared that many if not most of those hit were members of Hezbollah.
But it was not immediately clear if others also carried the pagers, and some bystanders including a young girl were among the dead.
The blasts were mainly Hezbollah strongholds like the south Beirut suburbs and the Beqaa region of eastern Lebanon.
Pagers also exploded in the Syrian capital Damascus, according to Lebanese security officials and a Hezbollah official.
The Israeli military has declined to comment – but did not deny claims that the pagers had been booby-trapped.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the United States was not aware of this incident in advance and was not involved.
How Israel is suspected of tampering with Hezbollah terrorists’ pagers & turning them into ‘remote bombs’
By Harry Goodwin
NO-ONE has claimed responsibility for the explosions – but Lebanese officials have accused Israel, which is yet to comment.
Hezbollah said it was carrying out a “security and scientific investigation” into the causes of the blasts.
Diplomatic and security sources speculated that the explosions could have been caused by the devices’ batteries detonating, possibly through overheating.
Experts were mystified by the explosions but several said they doubted the battery alone would have been enough to cause the blasts.
Newcastle University’s Paul Christensen said: “What we’re talking about is a relatively small battery bursting into flames.
“We’re not talking of a fatal explosion here. I’d need to know more about the energy density of the batteries.
“But my intuition is telling me that it’s highly unlikely.”
Lebanese digital rights organisation SMEX said Israel could have exploited a weakness in the device to cause it to explode.
It said the pagers could also have been intercepted before reaching Hezbollah and either tampered with electronically or implanted with an explosive device.
Israeli intelligence forces have previously placed explosives in personal phones to target enemies, according to prior reporting in the book Rise and Kill First.
Hackers have also demonstrated the ability to inject malicious code into personal devices, causing them to overheat and explode in some instances.
Charles Lister of the Middle East Institute said: “This was more than lithium batteries being forced into override.
“A small plastic explosive was almost certainly concealed alongside the battery, for remote detonation via a call or page.”
Israel’s spy agency “Mossad infiltrated the supply chain”, Lister said.
A source close to Hezbollah said”the pagers that exploded concern a shipment recently imported by Hezbollah of 1,000 devices”.
The insider said the pagers appeared to have been “sabotaged at source”.
One security expert told Sky News: “The general view I am hearing is that this was an impressive attack made possible by Hezbollah moving away from mobile phones.
“They were not being suitably sceptical about their alternative devices or supply chain.
“It looks likely that the pagers they Hezbollah purchased may have been compromised and turned into remote bombs.
“If they all went off on a similar timescale then they must have been triggered remotely.
“It seems too coordinated and powerful an explosion to just be malfunction.”
Experts said the pager explosions pointed to a sophisticated, long-planned operation.
Spies could have infiltrated the supply chain and rigged the pagers with explosives before they were imported to Lebanon, it is said.
Whatever the means, it targeted an extraordinary breadth of people with hundreds of small explosions all at once.
Viral footage showed a man picking through produce at a grocery store when the bag he was carrying at his hip exploded.
The blast sent the man sprawling to the ground and bystanders running.
At overwhelmed hospitals, the wounded were rushed in on stretchers, some with missing hands and faces partly blown away.
Others gaping holes at their hips and legs near the pocket area, it is reported.
On a main road in central Beirut, a car door was splattered with blood and the windshield cracked.
Lebanon’s health minister Firas Abiad said at least nine people were killed, including an 8-year-old girl.
Some 2,750 people were wounded by the explosions, 200 of them critically
Most had injuries in the face, hand, or around the abdomen, Abiad said.
Hezbollah said in a statement that two of its members were among those killed.
One of them was Mahdi Ammar, the son of a Hezbollah member in parliament.
Two sons of other prominent figures were wounded, a Hezbollah source said.
The Iranian state-run IRNA news agency said that the country’s ambassador, Mojtaba Amani was superficially wounded.
BOMB PLOT
Previously, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had warned the groups members not to carry cellphones.
Nasrallah said they could be used by Israel to track their movements and carry out targeted strikes.
Expert Sean Moorhouse said videos of the blasts suggested explosive charges as small as a pencil rubber had been placed into the devices.
Former British Army bomb disposal officer Moorhouse said the pagers would have had to have been rigged prior to delivery.
Moorhouse said the he believed the blasts were “a very successful operation” by Israel’s spy agency Mossad.
Israel has a long history of carrying out deadly operations well beyond its borders.
In January, Saleh Arouri, a senior Hamas official, was killed in an airstrike on a Beirut apartment building blamed on Israel.
In July, Israel assassinated Hezbollah’s top commander in another airstrike.
Hours later, Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas supreme leader, died in a mysterious explosion in Iran, also blamed on Israel.
Israel has killed Hamas militants in the past with booby-trapped cellphones.
Hezbollah and Israeli forces have been clashing almost daily for nearly a year.
The clashes have killed hundreds in Lebanon and dozens in Israel and have displaced tens of thousands on both sides of the border.
Yesterday Israel said that halting Hezbollah’s attacks in the north to allow residents to return to their homes is now an official war goal.
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