After pagers, walkie-talkies explode in Hezbollah's stronghold; 9 killed & over 300 wounded

Sources close to Hezbollah and the rescuers said that walkie-talkies had exploded in Lebanon’s capital, Beirut on Wednesday (September 18). The city is a stronghold of the Iran-backed group.

The incident comes just a day after thousands of pagers imported by Hezbollah months earlier detonated across Lebanon.

The hand-held radios were purchased by Hezbollah five months ago, around the same time that the pagers were bought, Reuters quoted a security source as saying.

One source told AFP that “A number of walkie talkies exploded in Beirut’s southern suburbs.” Hezbollah-affiliated rescuers confirmed that hand-held devices had exploded inside two cars in the area.

At least one of the blasts took place near a funeral organized by Iran-backed Hezbollah for those killed the previous day when thousands of pagers used by the group exploded across the country and wounded many of the group’s fighters.

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Meanwhile, Lebanon’s health ministry said that nine people were killed and more than 300 wounded in the latest attacks, the Lebanese authorities said, with the health ministry also describing the devices targeted as walkie-talkies.

The pager attacks

On Tuesday (September 17), thousands of pagers exploded in Lebanon, leading to at least 12 deaths and over 3,000 people getting injured.

Among those killed were the son of a prominent Hezbollah politician and an eight-year-old, the Lebanon health minister has said.

Although no entity immediately took responsibility for the attacks, Israel quickly emerged as the prime suspect.

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This is because the attacks coincided with growing hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah. The two have exchanged fire along the Israel-Lebanon border almost on the daily since Hamas’ October 7 attack that ignited the Gaza War.

Israel’s spy agency, Mossad, has a long history of executing highly skilled remote operations not unlike the ones that have taken place in the past two days.

Hezbollah has vowed revenge for the attacks.

With inputs from agencies