A new wave of exploding electronic devices across Lebanon killed at least nine people and wounded 300 others, the country’s health ministry said Wednesday, a day after thousands of pagers used by Hezbollah exploded in what appeared to be a deadly remote attack.
Among the scenes of Wednesday’s explosions was near the funeral for three Hezbollah members and a child killed by pagers the day before, according to Associated Press journalists at the scene.
A Hezbollah official told The Associated Press that walkie-talkies used by the group exploded Wednesday as a part of blasts heard in the capital Beirut. Reuters also reported the explosions came from Hezbollah hand-held radios, citing a security source and a witness in Lebanon.
Tuesday’s exploding pager attack across Lebanon and parts of Syria killed at least 12 people and wounded roughly 2,800 people, according to Lebanese officials — including 300 in critical condition.
The Lebanese government and Hezbollah have blamed Tuesday’s attack on Israel, and Wednesday’s explosions threatened to further raise tensions in the region. Israel has not confirmed its involvement in either incident.
An American official told the AP Israel briefed the United States on Tuesday after the attack, in which small amounts of explosive hidden in the pagers were detonated. A senior Lebanese security source and another source described the same details to Reuters, and that Israel’s Mossad spy agency was responsible.
It was not yet clear what caused Wednesday’s explosions.
A company based in Hungary was responsible for manufacturing the pagers that exploded in Lebanon and Syria in an apparent Israeli operation targeting Hezbollah’s communications network, another firm whose brand was used on the devices said Wednesday.
The AR-924 pagers used the attack were manufactured by BAC Consulting KFT, based in the Hungarian capital of Budapest, according to a statement released by Gold Apollo, a Taiwanese firm that authorized the use of its brand on the pagers.