Not just in Lebanon: 19 Iranian Revolutionary Guard officials killed in pager explosions in eastern Syria

Iran and Hezbollah vow revenge against Israel

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Nineteen Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) officials were reportedly killed in Syria after their pagers exploded on Wednesday. The Saudi news outlet Al-Hadath reported that the incident took place in Deir Ez-Zor Governorate in eastern Syria. In addition, some 150 members of the Iranian regime guards were reportedly injured during the mass pager explosions.

The incident, which resulted in multiple Iranian IRGC fatalities, came shortly after approximately 4,000 pagers used by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror group, exploded in various locations in neighboring Lebanon. Iran and Hezbollah quickly blamed Israel for the attacks.

"At 15:30, a large number of pagers exploded, many people were injured. A Lebanese girl and two Hezbollah members were killed in the incident, along with a large number of injured," the terrorist organization Hezbollah stated after the first wave of pager explosions on Tuesday.

At least 20 people have been killed and some 450 are injured in Lebanon following a second wave of Hezbollah device explosions. The large majority of the affected are believed to be Hezbollah operatives.

While the State of Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility, foreign reports attribute the massive pager explosions to Israel's Mossad foreign intelligence and the IDF's intelligence units.

Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani was seriously injured when his pager exploded, The New York Times reported, losing one eye and sustaining serious injuries to his other.

Following the widespread pager explosions, the Iranian regime and its terrorist proxy Hezbollah accused Israel of “mass murder.”

Nasser Kanaani, a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, stated that Tehran “condemns the terrorist act of the Zionist regime.” A Lebanese parliamentary source affiliated with Hezbollah informed a Qatari news outlet that it seeks to exact a “fair punishment.”

“The punishment will be fair, and we’ve said again and again that we don’t want a war, and we’re still ruling that scenario out — despite the enemy’s desire to drag us into it,” the unnamed source, referring to the Jewish state.

“We are fully ready for it, though,” the source added. Meanwhile, the Iranian regime publicly announced it reserves the right to respond to the attack on the Iranian ambassador.

“Iran reserves the right to respond in accordance with international law to the attack that injured its ambassador to Lebanon,” Iran’s UN envoy Amir Saeid Iravani stated.

Iravani urged the UN secretary-general and UN Security Council to condemn Israel for its alleged operations, describing the Jewish state as a “terrorist regime.”