Pager attack: Hezbollah fighters blinded by explosions

Questions have been being raised over whether the devices were set off prematurely because a member of Hezbollah was getting suspicious

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Up to 500 Hezbollah fighters suffered severe eye injuries, including some being blinded, from the pager attacks in Lebanon, western intelligence sources told The National on Wednesday.

The attack, widely believed to have been carried out by Israel despite it not claiming so, simultaneously exploded pagers belonging to members of the Iran-backed group, killing 12, including two children, and injuring almost 3,000, many of them gravely.

Hundreds of Hezbollah operatives were looking down at their pager when it exploded, as it is understood that the devices were designed to initiate five seconds after a page had been sent to cause maximum damage, a western security source explained.

The scale of the injuries varied from facial wounds, including blinding, to deep lacerations in the hips and thigh area, as well as serious burns.

Questions have been being raised over whether the devices were set off prematurely because “an element within Hezbollah operatives was getting suspicious,” a second western security source said.

An injured man undergoes an operation, following pager detonations across Lebanon, at a hospital in Beirut on Tuesday. Reuteres

Hezbollah sources didn't respond to requests for comment.

However, a regional security source close to the group told The National that a "wide discussion started within the resistance to identify the source of the breach through which the enemy managed to infiltrate and carry out this massive operation,” they said.

“It is a process that begins with how the enemy obtained information that secured access to the shipment of communication devices that exploded.”

The focus of the investigation indicates that the Iran-backed group believes the devices were intercepted by Israeli intelligence agents before they were delivered. The source stressed that the focus is also on knowing “what steps were taken to ensure that they reached the hands of the resistance fighters, what was the method of detonation, what are the losses and what's the impact on the resistance's operations”.

Other sources have suggested that the pager attack was originally designed to pre-empt an Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon. Still, the Mossad, or Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, moved up the operation for security or political reasons.

An explosion in a man's bag at a supermarket in Beirut, Lebanon. This was one of many incidents where pagers blew up on Tuesday September 17, maiming and killing users. Reuters

Ambulances are surrounded by people at the entrance of the American University of Beirut Medical Centre as casualties of the wave of explosions are brought in. AFP

A stretcher bearing an injured person is taken to American University of Beirut Medical Centre. Reuters

A man donates blood in the southern Lebanese city of Saida after a wave of injuries and fatalities in pager explosions. AFP

Friends and relatives of injured people arrive at the American University of Beirut Medical Centre. EPA

An ambulance arrives at the American University of Beirut Medical Centre. EPA

Ali Ammar, Hezbollah member of the Lebanese Parliament, accepts condolences for his son, who was killed in the detonation of pagers for which Hezbollah blamed Israel. Reuters

Hezbollah’s communications network has been significantly affected, which probably explains why there has been no significant response yet.

The Gold Appolo pagers, which have been in circulation between three weeks and a month, contained between two and 20 grams of explosive material, likely the highly combustible PETN (Pentaerythritol tetranitrate), experts said. There have also been some inconsistencies with the explosions, some big and others small.

Although labelled “Made in Taiwan,” it is likely that they were manufactured under licence by BAC Consulting Kft in Budapest, Hungary. Iran may have played a part in their importation.

Tal Hagin, a leading open-source intelligence analyst, stated that the intelligence gathered by the Israelis from the attack would be “monumental”.

“From an intelligence standpoint, what you are seeing is population centres for Hezbollah where a number of explosions have occurred in a random neighbourhood. When suddenly you have five devices go off next to each other, that gives you an indicator that there might be something important in that neighbourhood,” he said.

Mr Hagin, who is based in Tel Aviv, also highlighted that the high number of injuries could have a more substantial impact on Hezbollah than fatalities.

“Operatives will now be incredibly fearful of the fact that an enemy intelligence agency was able to get into their pockets and explode," he said.