‘An act of mass terror’
Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, says the explosions in Lebanon were “an act of mass terror”, noting that Hezbollah is not only an armed group but also a political party with presence in various parts of society.
“Even a combatant who’s not in active duty, but is hanging out with his family, is not a legitimate target in war,” he said, adding that not everybody holding a pager is a “legitimate target”.
“This is a huge precedent for war in the region and beyond.”
Lebanon Civil Defence teams extinguish dozens of fires
The organisation says its teams have put out at least 60 fires across the country’s southern governorate of Nabatieh.
Fires broke out in residential homes and local businesses, as well as in vehicles and motorbikes “as a result of the explosion of wireless devices”, the Civil Defence added.
“Firefighting and rescue operations are still ongoing,” it continued.
Bomb found on ambulance in Beirut; army detonates it safely
What we’re hearing is an explosive device was found by the Lebanese army in an ambulance at the American University hospital. About 10 minutes ago, army engineers dug a hole in the ground, put the explosive device inside and then detonated it safely.
We were about 50 metres [55 yards] away, and the sound of the blast was very loud. The question is how did the device get into an ambulance?
It’s not just Hezbollah using walkie-talkies. The medical services use them on a regular basis. Doctors have been telling us that they carry pagers like the ones that exploded yesterday and they’ve dumped those now.
People here are now suspicious of their devices. That’s where we’re at right now – an underlying fear.
14 killed, more than 450 wounded in latest device explosions
The Lebanese Health Ministry says 14 people have been killed and more than 450 wounded in today’s electronic device blasts.
On Tuesday, explosions in pagers used by Lebanon’s Hezbollah group killed 12 people and wounded nearly 3,000, about 200 critically.
