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Exploding pagers wound “large number” of Hezbollah members in Lebanon, Iran-backed group says
Beirut, Lebanon — Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement said Tuesday that “a large number” of its members were wounded and at least three people killed when pagers issued by the group exploded simultaneously in locations across the Iran-backed group’s Beirut and south Lebanon strongholds. Some Lebanese sources were quoted by news agencies as blaming Israel, but Hezbollah said in its statement that it was still conducting a “wide-ranging security and scientific investigation to determine” the cause of the blasts.
The Hezbollah statement said one girl and two members of the group were killed. Lebanon’s public health minister, Dr. Firass Abiad, was quoted by numerous media outlets as saying at a news conference that at least eight people were killed and about 2,800 others wounded by the explosions.
Lebanese state TV said Iran’s ambassador to the country, Mojtaba Amani, was wounded by one of the blasts, but that he was “conscious and in no danger.”
ANWAR AMRO/AFP/Getty
One source close to Hezbollah told AFP the incident was a result of an “Israeli breach” of its communications, and Israel’s Walla news outlet said the Lebanese government information minister had called it a violation of Lebanese sovereignty by the neighboring nation.
There was no immediate comment on the explosions by Israeli officials, and government ministers belonging to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party were told not to issue any.
The CBS News Confirmed team was working to verify a number of videos that quickly started spreading on social media, some showing people going about their daily activities when they’re seemingly struck by explosions on or near their bodies, and others showing the bloody aftermath of what appeared to be small explosions.
Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health issued statements Tuesday asking all health workers to urgently head to their workplaces to contribute to emergency care for the large number of casualties coming into hospitals after the explosions.
Hezbollah has relied increasingly on low-tech communications methods in a bid to circumvent Israeli electronic surveillance amid the killing of the group’s senior members, including top commander Fuad Shukr, who was killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut in July.
According to a Reuters report in June, Hezbollah commanders have banned cell phones in some areas and ordered members to rely instead on pagers and in-person communications.
The blasts in Lebanon come after weeks of increasing crossfire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah, which is based across Israel’s northern border in Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to oust Hezbollah militants from southern Lebanon to stop the regular volley of rocket fire aimed at his country.
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Concern has mounted in recent weeks that Netanyahu will order a full-scale military operation in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah has fired rockets at northern Israel since the country launched its war in Gaza on the group’s Hamas allies, who are also supported by Iran. The war, sparked by Hamas’ unprecedented Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel, has left more than 42,000 people dead in Gaza and fueled tension across the volatile Middle East.
Tens of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border since early October. Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have killed more than 450 people, mostly Hezbollah members, in Lebanon over the last 11 months, while on the Israeli side, 21 soldiers and 13 civilians had been killed by late July by fire from Lebanon.
This breaking news story will be updated.
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At least 11 employees were taken to hospitals and residents were urged to shelter in place on Tuesday after an explosion at a Louisville, Kentucky, business.
The Louisville Metro Emergency Services reported on social media a “hazardous materials incident” at 1901 Payne St., in Louisville. The address belongs to a facility operated by Givaudan Sense Colour, a manufacturer of food colorings for soft drinks and other products, according to officials and online records.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said emergency teams responded to the blast around 3 p.m. News outlets reported that neighbors heard what sounded like an explosion coming from the business. Overhead news video footage showed an industrial building with a large hole in its roof.
WLKY-TV
“The cause at this point of the explosion is unknown,” Greenberg said in a news conference. No one died in the explosion, he added.
Greenberg said officials spoke to employees inside the plant. “They have initially conveyed that everything was normal activity when the explosion occurred,” he said.
The Louisville Fire Department said in a post on the social platform X that multiple agencies were responding to a “large-scale incident.”
The Louisville Metro Emergency Services first urged people within a mile of the business to shelter in place, but that order was lifted in the afternoon. An evacuation order for the two surrounding blocks around the site of the explosion was still in place Tuesday afternoon.
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A rare square 37-carat emerald owned by the Aga Khan fetched nearly $9 million at auction in Geneva on Tuesday, making it the world’s most expensive green stone.
Sold by Christie’s, the Cartier diamond and emerald brooch, which can also be worn as a pendant, dethrones a piece of jewelry made by the fashion house Bulgari, which Richard Burton gave as a wedding gift to fellow actor Elizabeth Taylor, as the most precious emerald.
In 1960, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan commissioned Cartier to set the emerald in a brooch with 20 marquise-cut diamonds for British socialite Nina Dyer, to whom he was briefly married.
Dyer then auctioned off the emerald to raise money for animals in 1969.
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images
By chance that was Christie’s very first such sale in Switzerland on the shores of Lake Geneva, with the emerald finding its way back to the 110th edition this year.
It was bought by jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels before passing a few years later into the hands of Harry Winston, nicknamed the “King of Diamonds.”
“Emeralds are hot right now, and this one ticks all the boxes,” said Christie’s EMEA Head of Jewellery Max Fawcett. “…We might see an emerald of this quality come up for sale once every five or six years.”
Also set with diamonds, the previous record-holder fetched $6.5 million at an auction of part of Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor’s renowned jewelry collection in New York.
