14 dead as Hezbollah walkie-talkies explode in second, deadlier attack

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images)

Wireless communication devices have exploded again today across Lebanon in a second attack even deadlier than yesterday’s explosion of thousands of Hezbollah pagers. According to Lebanon’s Ministry of Health, the new attack has killed at least 14 more people and injured more than 450.

Today’s attack targeted two-way radios (“walkie-talkies”) issued to Hezbollah members. The radios exploded in the middle of the day, with at least one going off during a funeral for people killed in yesterday’s pager attacks. A New York Times report on that funeral described the moment:

When the blast went off, a brief, eerie stillness descended on the crowd. Mourners looked at one another in disbelief. The religious chants being broadcast over a loudspeaker abruptly stopped.

Then panic set in. People started scrambling in the streets, hiding in the lobbies of nearby buildings, and shouting at one another, “Turn off your phone! Take out the battery!” Soon a voice on the loudspeaker at the funeral urged everyone to do the same…

One woman, Um Ibrahim, stopped a reporter in the middle of the confusion and begged to use the reporter’s cellphone to call her children. The woman dialed a number with her hands shaking, then screamed into the phone, “Turn off your phones now!”

The story appears to capture the current mood in Lebanon, where no one seems quite sure what will explode next. While today’s attack against walkie-talkies is well-attested, various unconfirmed reports suggest that people fear an explosion from just about anything with a battery.