Electronic devices, including walkie-talkies, exploded in several parts of Lebanon on Wednesday. According to Lebanon’s health ministry, at least one person has been killed and more than 100 injured by the detonations.
The blasts came the day after 2,800 were injured and at least 12 killed when pagers belonging to Shiite Hezbollah terrorists simultaneously blew up on Tuesday.
Several explosions occurred at the Beirut funeral arranged by Hezbollah Wednesday for people killed the day before, according to Associated Press. Lebanese state media reported further exploding pagers and other devices in several other parts of the country.
A Reuters journalist in south Beirut reported seeing Hezbollah members “frantically” taking out the batteries from any devices that had not exploded, throwing the parts into metal barrels.
The walkie-talkies—or handheld radios—were reportedly purchased five months ago, at the same time as the pagers, a security source told Reuters. The news outlet also identified the devices as made by Japanese company ICOM, which said the model that appeared to be pictured in images from Lebanon was discontinued in 2014. The walkie-talkies had recently received new batteries, WSJ reports, and were used by a “narrower range of Hezbollah members” than the pagers.
Hezbollah is investigating the attacks, including looking at the possibility of people on the inside leaking information about the purchase of the communication devices. The terrorist group has previously been struggling with information leaks and informants, and this week’s attacks have also revealed the identities of a lot of their operatives and commanders.
Hezbollah has said it will retaliate against Israel, though the Israeli military has not commented on the explosions.
