Death toll rises to 12 in exploding pager blasts that injured thousands as Hezbollah vows harsh revenge
The death toll from the exploding pagers that injured thousands of Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon has now risen to 12, including two young children, Lebanese authorities said Wednesday — as the terrorist group warned Israel to brace for “harsh punishment” over the massacre.Nearly 3,000 people were left wounded when the hand-held devices started exploding near-simultaneously on Tuesday afternoon in a deadly attack that Hezbollah and the Lebanese government have blamed on “Israeli aggression.”The injured included Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, who suffered serious head injuries and lost an eye, according to Iranian state-run news outlet al-Mehr.Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group, quickly vowed to retaliate against Israel over the sophisticated, remote blasts, saying Wednesday it would continue its normal strikes to support Hamas in its war against the Jewish state.
“The resistance will continue today, like any other day, its operations to support Gaza, its people and its resistance which is a separate path from the harsh punishment that the criminal enemy (Israel) should await in response to Tuesday’s massacre,” a statement from the terror group said.“This is another reckoning that will come, God willing.”The attack unfolded when the pagers started heating up and then exploding in their owners’ hands or pockets in the southern Lebanon suburbs of Beirut and the eastern Bekaa Valley, which are all Hezbollah strongholds.The majority of those hit were members or linked to members of Hezbollah — whether fighters or civilians. Dozens gathered Wednesday in the village of Nadi Sheet to mourn Fatima Abdullah, a 9-year-old girl said to be one of two kids killed in the attacks — with her mother still proudly wearing a yellow Hezbollah scarf in support of the terror group.It wasn’t clear if Amani, the Iranian ambassador, was carrying his own pager, or if he was injured when someone’s nearby device detonated, state ...