Hezbollah targeted as pager blasts kill 12

BEIRUT — Lebanese medics treated a stream of wounded people in a hospital car park as others in Hezbollah's southern Beirut stronghold rushed to give blood after group members' pagers exploded on Tuesday.

The death toll from exploding pagers in Lebanon rose to 12 on Wednesday including two children. More than 2,800 others, including Hezbollah members, were wounded in different areas of Lebanon as their pagers exploded, said Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad.

Elnashra news website reported that the son of Hezbollah parliamentarian Ali Ammar was among those killed, while Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani was among the injured.

Israel has not claimed responsibility for the blasts, but Hezbollah, Syria, Iran, Yemen's Houthis, Iraq and the Arab League have all accused it of being behind them.

In a statement, Hezbollah said it is conducting security and scientific investigations to identify the reasons behind these explosions, adding that the group is "at the highest level of readiness to defend Lebanon and its people".

In a separate statement, the Shiite group blamed Israel for "this criminal attack", vowing to retaliate.

A senior Lebanese security source and another source told Reuters that Israel's Mossad intelligence agency planted explosives inside 5,000 pagers imported by the Lebanese group Hezbollah months before Tuesday's detonations.

The Israeli military declined to comment. Developments in Lebanon are extremely concerning, especially given the "extremely volatile" context, said United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Tuesday, adding that the UN deplores any civilian casualties.

The Kremlin warned on Wednesday the blasts risked igniting tensions in an "explosive" region.

Potential trigger point

"What has happened, whatever it is, is certainly leading to an escalation of tensions. The region itself is in an explosive situation ... And every incident like this has the potential to be a trigger," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

The Pentagon said the United States had no involvement in the blasts.

After the blasts, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati urged the mobilization of all departments of the Public Health Ministry to follow up on medical care for the wounded.

The ministry's Emergency Operations Center issued an urgent statement requesting all hospitals across Lebanon to be on high alert and enhance preparedness to meet the massive need for emergency health services.

The ministry also asked all citizens to discard their pager devices immediately over safety concerns.

At one hospital in Beirut's southern suburbs, an AFP correspondent saw people being treated in a car park on mattresses, with medical gloves on the ground and ambulance stretchers covered in blood.

At another hospital, the correspondent saw one person wounded in the face, eye and hand, and another on the side of his waist, with a third person being treated in a car.

"In all my life I've never seen someone walking on the street ...and then explode," said Musa, a resident of Beirut, requesting to be identified only by his first name.

"My wife and I were going to the doctor, I found people lying on the ground in front of me," he said.

The Iranian Red Crescent Society announced on Tuesday that it is prepared to send emergency treatment teams to Lebanon to assist those injured in the simultaneous explosions.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani on Tuesday directed the dispatch of medical teams to Lebanon for urgent assistance.

The mass casualties followed Israel's declaration of shifting its military focus from the Gaza Strip to Lebanon after an 11-month devastating conflict. Earlier on Tuesday, Israel announced the expansion of its military aims, widening its nearly yearlong fight against Hamas in Gaza to focus on Hezbollah.

Xinhua - Agencies