The explosive pager that injured thousands of Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon on Tuesday was reportedly detonated by a message purporting to be from the leader of an avowed terrorist group.
Hezbollah fighters across Lebanon and parts of Syria received a message supposedly sent by the group’s leadership to their new pagers at 3:30 p.m. But in reality, the fake message triggered explosives hidden in the pagers, officials told The New York Times.
According to Sky News Arabia’s sources, the message caused a battery in the pager to overheat, igniting the explosives.
Officials told the media that the pager sounded for several seconds with an explosive device believed to have been planted by the Israeli spy agency Mossad.
Lebanese authorities said the pager explosion killed at least nine people, eight of them suspected to be Hezbollah fighters, including an eight-year-old girl, and injured around 2,800.
The explosives exploded in people’s pockets, bags and hands, leaving tiny, bloody trails across the country.
According to an Associated Press photographer at the scene, some victims lost both arms, some had thighs and groins blown off, and some suffered facial disfigurement.
Israel is said to have orchestrated a complex attack to eliminate Hezbollah’s central means of communications after the group switched from telephones to pagers in February, on the orders of its leadership, to avoid Israeli surveillance.
Mossad intercepted the Taiwanese-made pagers before they reached Lebanon, planting one to two ounces of the highly explosive substance pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) next to the battery and a remote trigger switch, The Times and Sky News Arabia reported.
The equipment was new, but it is unclear when it arrived in Lebanon or how long it had been in use.
Israel has refused to comment on the planned attack or whether it bears responsibility.
With post wire
