A day after the unprecedented operation in which thousands of pagers exploded across Lebanon, explosions again are heard in Beirut and other areas across Lebanon. According to reports from Lebanon, late on Wednesday afternoon hand-held radios or walkie-talkies exploded in several areas of Beirut and southern and eastern Lebanon.
At least 14 people were killed and 450 were reported injured in the explosions of the devices, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. Many of the injured were hit in the stomach and hands.
Handheld radios explode at funeral for son of Hezbollah lawmaker on Wednesday
According to the reports, there are casualties in the Beirut suburb of Dahieh, Saida in southern Lebanon and Baalbek in eastern Lebanon. The explosions occurred in many houses, as well as in vehicles, according to local reports. A security official told the Reuters news agency that the hand-held radios that exploded Wednesday are different from the pagers that exploded on Tuesday.
The radios were purchased by Hezbollah about five months ago, around the same time as the pagers, a security source told Reuters. Al Jazeera reported that the devices that exploded were the icomv82 model.
A security official told CNN that according to the initial tests, there were between 15 and 20 explosions in the Beirut suburb of Dahieh and a similar number in southern Lebanon. According to him, the walkie-talkies were less used than the pagers that exploded Tuesday.
The Lebanese National News Agency reported that solar energy systems exploded in several houses in southern Lebanon, at the same time as the explosion of the walkie-talkies in large areas of the country.
According to Sky News in Arabic, the explosions happened at the same time as the funeral of the son of Hezbollah parliament member, Ali Amar, in Dahieh; footage taken at the funeral shows panic at the moment of the explosion.
Sources told the Voice of the Capitol news website, which is affiliated with the Syrian opposition, that "high-frequency waves were sent that caused equipment and broadcasting stations to explode."
Footage of the first explosions on Wednesday
The Voice of the Capital also reported that the Syrian regime also called on all security forces and military units to turn off wireless devices, disconnect switchboards and use wired communication.
Top Hezbollah official Hashem Safeiddine on Wednesday afternoon said that the group is entering a "new phase" in the conflict with Israel and that "punishment is certainly coming."
Also on Wednesday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the pager blasts targeting Hezbollah indicate "a serious risk of a dramatic escalation in Lebanon and everything must be done to avoid that escalation."
"Obviously the logic of making all these devices explode is to do it as a pre-emptive strike before a major military operation," he told reporters.
Sky News correspondent Alex Crawford was at a funeral in Beirut for four people killed in Tuesday's attacks. She described the "small sound of something popping" when the explosions occurred.
"We came out to try and found out what the sound was and people were running. People were covered in blood," she says. "There was blood on a car."
She also reported that Hezbollah operatives collected the devices of funeral-goers and took the batteries out of them.