Walkie-talkie blasts kill 20 and injure 450 in Lebanon

Israel declares a 'new phase of war' on its northern border

- BEL TREW AND CHRIS STEVENSON

Handheld radios used by Hezbollah exploded across Lebanon yesterday in a second wave of deadly blasts as Israel’s defence minister declared his country was entering a “new phase of war” on its northern border. At least 20 people were killed and 450 injured by the detonations, Lebanon’s health ministry said.

It came 24 hours after thousands of exploding pagers killed 12 and injured almost 3,000 others in an unprecedented attack that Hezbollah has blamed on Israel.

While Israel has not commented, the finger has been pointed at its Mossad spy agency. A senior Lebanese security source and a second source told reporters that Mossad – which has a long history of complex attacks on foreign soil – planted explosives inside the pagers. The claim was mirrored by American officials cited in US media.

Yesterday’s attacks on walkie-talkies bore similar hallmarks. The devices detonated across the country’s south and in the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut; many of the victims’ wounds were to their stomachs and hands. At least one of the blasts took place near to a funeral organised by Iran-backed Hezbollah for those killed during the pager explosions.

The handheld radios were purchased by Hezbollah five months ago, around the same time that the pagers were bought, a security source told reporters.

“The prime minister of Lebanon was just here in the situation room at the Ministry of Health,” Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad, told The Independent. “We feel that this is an indiscriminate act of aggression, and that it is another breach of international humanitarian law.

“I was doing tours today, meeting a lot of the patients and their families. The main feeling I got was one of indignation, not a feeling of hopelessness and desperation – it was a sense of indignation, and a feeling that this is really an escalation.”