9 killed, 300 injured as walkie-talkies explode across Lebanon

Explosions went off in Beirut and multiple parts of Lebanon in an apparent second wave of detonations of electronic devices, Hezbollah officials and state media said on Wednesday, reporting walkie-talkies and even solar equipment being targeted a day after hundreds of pagers blew up.

At least nine people were killed and 300 wounded, the Health Ministry said.

Several blasts were heard at the funeral in Beirut for three Hezbollah members and a child killed by exploding pagers the day before, according to Associated Press journalists at the scene. An AP photographer in the southern coastal city of Sidon saw a car and a mobile phone shop damaged after devices exploded inside of them.

A Hezbollah official told the AP that walkie-talkies used by the group exploded. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media. Lebanon's official news agency reports that solar energy systems exploded in homes in several areas of Beirut and in southern Lebanon, wounding at least one girl.

The new blasts hit a country still thrown into confusion and anger after Tuesday's pager bombings, which appeared to be a complex Israeli attack targeting Hezbollah members that caused civilian casualties, too. At least 12 people were killed, including two children, and some 2,800 people wounded as hundreds of pagers used by Hezbollah members began detonating wherever they happened to be — in homes, cars, at grocery stores and in cafes.

In the first wave of bombings, it appeared that small amounts of explosives had been hidden in the thousands of pagers delivered to Hezbollah and remotely detonated. The reports of further electronic devices exploding suggested even greater infiltration of boobytraps into Lebanon's supply chain. It also deepens concerns over the attacks in which hundreds of blasts went off in public areas, often with many bystanders, with no certainty of who was holding the rigged devices.

The attacks, which Israel has not commented on, renewed fears that the simmering conflict between Israel and Hezbollah could escalate into all-out war. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday the US is still assessing how the attack could affect efforts to negotiate a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.