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Israel’s military said they have intercepted two suspicious drones that approached Israel from Lebanon and Iraq on Wednesday morning, the day after pagers used by the militant group Hezbollah exploded in Lebanon and Syria, killing at least nine people, including an 8-year-old girl, and wounding nearly 3,000. Hezbollah and the Lebanese government blamed Israel for what appeared to be a sophisticated remote attack.
The Israeli military said they intercepted a drone launched from Lebanon over the Mediterranean Sea near the coast of northern Israel. Another drone launched from Iraq was intercepted by Israeli air force fighter jets. There were no injuries or damage reported.
Full StoryLebanese medics treated Tuesday a stream of wounded people at a hospital car park as others in Hezbollah's southern Beirut stronghold rushed to give blood after group members' pagers had exploded.
Simultaneous blasts of the devices hit locations in several Hezbollah bastions across Lebanon, with the health ministry reporting 12 killed and some 2,800 others wounded.
Full StoryCaretaker Health Minister Firass Abiad said Wednesday that 12 people were killed after paging devices used by Hezbollah members exploded across Lebanon a day earlier, adding that some wounded were treated in Syria.
"After checking with all the hospitals," the toll was revised to 12 dead, Abiad told a news conference, putting the number of wounded between 2,750 and 2,800.
Full StoryThe pager was the first compact mobile communication tool to appear on the mass market and although smartphones have largely pushed it out, some people still use the reliable technology today.
Pagers were in the spotlight on Tuesday after hundreds of the devices used by Hezbollah members in Lebanon exploded simultaneously across the country in a first-of-its-kind attack that the group blamed on Israel.
Full StoryHezbollah and the Lebanese government were quick to blame Israel for the nearly simultaneous detonation of hundreds of pagers used by the group's members in an attack Tuesday that killed at least nine people and wounded nearly 3,000 others, according to officials.
Many of those hit were members of Hezbollah, but it wasn't immediately clear if others also carried the pagers. Among those killed were the son of a prominent Hezbollah politician and an 8-year-old girl, according to Lebanon's health minister.
Full StoryIn what appears to be a sophisticated, remote attack, pagers used by hundreds of members of Hezbollah exploded almost simultaneously in Lebanon and Syria Tuesday, killing at least nine people — including an 8-year-old girl — and wounding thousands more.
A U.S. official said Israel briefed the U.S. on the operation — in which small amounts of explosive secreted in the pagers were detonated — on Tuesday after it was concluded. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the information publicly.
Full StoryHundreds of paging devices used by members of Hezbollah exploded across Lebanon in an attack that killed at least nine people, including a child, and wounded 2,800 more.
The blasts dealt a heavy blow to the group, which blamed its arch-foe Israel for the attack.
Full StoryThe United States has said it was not aware in advance and had no involvement in mass explosions of pagers used by Lebanon's Hezbollah, as it urged restraint by Iran in response.
"I can tell you that the U.S. was not involved in it, the U.S. was not aware of this incident in advance and, at this point, we're gathering information," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
Full StoryFourteen people were wounded in Syria on Tuesday when pagers used by Hezbollah exploded, a Britain-based war monitor said, adding to a toll of at least eight dead and 2,750 wounded in Lebanon.
"Fourteen people whose nationalities are unknown have been wounded in Damascus and its countryside after pagers used by Hezbollah exploded," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. A source close to Hezbollah told AFP that some of its members had been wounded in pager blasts in neighboring Syria, without specifying how many.
Full StoryHezbollah vowed on Wednesday to punish Israel after hundreds of paging devices used by the militant group's members exploded in a deadly wave across Lebanon.
There was no immediate comment from Israel on the explosions that killed nine people, including the 10-year-old daughter of a Hezbollah member, and wounded around 2,800 others.
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