UN Security Council to meet Friday over Lebanon pager explosions
Nine people were killed and more than 300 wounded on Wednesday in a new wave of explosions targeting radio communication devices in Lebanonas announced by the Lebanese Ministry of Health, the day after similar explosions of communication devices that led to the death of 12 people.
“Nine people were killed and more than 300 were injured,” the ministry said in a statement, in an “update on the toll of the new wave of bombings that targeted wireless devices” in Lebanon.
A number of wireless communication devices exploded in the southern suburbs of Beirut, coinciding with the funeral of Hezbollah members killed on Tuesday in similar explosions, a source close to the Hezbollah And an ambulance service affiliated with the party.
An AFP photographer who was present at the funeral witnessed chaos following the explosions.
A source close to Hezbollah reported that “a number of wireless communication devices exploded in the southern suburb of Beirut,” while a Hezbollah ambulance service confirmed that communication devices exploded in two cars in the southern suburb.
The National News Agency reported the explosion of pagers and wireless communication devices in the suburbs, the south, and the Bekaa in the east of the country.
A medical source said that “a hospital in the city of Baalbek” received “25 wounded people as a result of the explosion of wireless devices.”
Twelve people were killed and 2,800 others were injured on Tuesday in simultaneous explosions of communications devices in the southern suburbs of Beirut, eastern Lebanon and southern Lebanon, health authorities announced.
Security Council meeting
In a related context, Slovenia’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Samuel Zbojar, President of the UN Security Council for the month of September, said that the Security Council will meet on Friday to discuss the pager bombings in Lebanon that targeted the armed Hezbollah group.
He said that the meeting came at the request of Algeria on behalf of the Arab countries.
Earlier on Wednesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the pager explosions targeting Hezbollah indicate “a serious risk of dramatic escalation and everything we can must be done to avoid such escalation.”
His spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said in a later statement that Guterres “urges all parties concerned to exercise maximum restraint to avoid any further escalation.”
