Hezbollah’s pagers explode in pocket in Lebanon and Syria

Encrypted pagers used by Hezbollah and their sponsors in Lebanon and Syria simultaneously started exploding on September 17.

The pagers were the backbone of Hezbollah and Iranian communications in Lebanon and Syria. It has now been destroyed along with wounding at least at least 2,800 and killing eight Hezbollah and Iranians connected with them, including Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, who was wounded.

We will probably learn more about how many pagers exploded in the coming days. There is now video of some of the pagers exploding and video of hospitals crowded with wounded (See below). Hezbollah has blamed Israel for the operation, according to news reports.

Lacking communications except on public cellular phones, it will be difficult for Hezbollah to launch coordinated missile attacks on Israel, as they have done as recently as the last few days. That does not mean they won’t try, of course, but the shutdown of their communications system is a definite setback.

If the attack was launched by Israel, which has not been confirmed, it would indicate that Israel is (1) retaliating for Hezbollah attacks and (2) seeking to hobble Hezbollah’s military operations if Israel launches an attack on Lebanon, as many project will soon happen.

Details of exactly how this feat was accomplished are still under wraps. News reports say that the pagers exploded by overheating their lithium batteries. This means that while the pagers sent and received encrypted messages, their operating systems were not secure.

One of our readers reports his suspicion that the pagers were modified somewhere in transit and contained explosives. In reviewing the latest videos it does look as if the devices exploded.

This suggests that the operation against