Eight-year-old among those slain, Israel blamed, Iran's Lebanese ambassador wounded, it's said

Lebanon says at least nine people, including an eight-year-old girl, were killed today after pagers used by Hezbollah members exploded across the country. Israel has been blamed.

The Mid-East nation's health minister Firass Abiad added more than 2,750 people were injured, over 200 critically, after the devices reportedly heated up before exploding. Mojtaba Amani, Iran's ambassador to the country, was also wounded, it's said.

The Lebanese Red Cross has deployed 130 ambulances and more than 500 EMTs to deal with the aftermath. It has issued an urgent call for blood donors in the country.

A representative of Hezbollah, an Iran-backed terror organization that has significant power in Lebanon, told Al Jazeera “pagers belonging to employees of various Hezbollah units and institutions exploded.”

Video footage of the blasts suggests the pagers were rigged with fast-acting explosives. Some assumed the devices had their lithium-ion batteries shorted somehow, by ...