A Sky News Arabia correspondent in Washington quoted the official, who requested anonymity, as saying: “We do not rule out the role of elements in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in booby-trapping pagers inside Iran.”
In a unique intelligence operation, thousands of pagers exploded in different areas of Lebanon, killing 9 people and wounding about 2,800 others.
Among those injured was the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, which indicates that the pagers are used by Iranian officials, who supply Hezbollah with all the technologies and weapons.
14 people were also injured in Damascus and its surroundings in the explosion of communication devices “belonging to the Lebanese Hezbollah,” according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which was unable to confirm the nationality of the injured.
In a statement, Hezbollah held Israel “fully responsible” for the explosions, vowing that “the enemy will receive its just punishment.”
Regional channels broadcast a video clip filmed by a surveillance camera, showing what appeared to be an explosion of a small portable device placed next to a cashier in a grocery store while she was receiving money from someone.
A Hezbollah official, who asked not to be named, said the explosion was the “biggest security breach” the group had suffered during clashes with Israel that have been ongoing for nearly a year.
An Israeli military spokesman said Tuesday that senior commanders, including Chief of Staff Gen. Herzi Halevi, held a meeting to assess the situation “regarding the state of readiness on both the offensive and defensive fronts on all fronts,” without commenting directly on the Lebanon bombings.
“There is no change in the Home Front Command’s instructions,” the spokesman said, but added that “vigilance must be maintained so that the public is informed of any change in policy immediately.”
Two sources familiar with Hezbollah operations told Reuters that the Lebanese group’s fighters are using mobile pagers as a low-tech way to try to avoid Israeli tracking of their locations.
A pager is a wireless communication device that receives and displays messages.
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