by Mick the Ram

After initial reports that Mojtaba Amani, the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, had only received superficial injuries in the simultaneous pager blasts on 17 September, it later emerged that he had in fact lost one of his eyes and received serious damage to the other, following the explosion of his device.

The diplomat is one of around 2,800 people to suffer life-changing injuries, a number which includes two of his bodyguards.

According to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Group, it is understood that he is going to be evacuated and flown back to Tehran for continued medical treatment.

A senior surgeon in the Lebanese capital Beirut, reported that he had removed more eyes in one day than he had in the entirety of his 25 year career.

The coordinated attack on Hezbollah members killed 12, including 2 children, and the group have blamed Israel for what it has called “criminal aggression” and have vowed to get “just retribution”.

The Israeli military have declined to comment on the incident.  

Replacements for mobile phones

Thousands of pagers exploded right across Lebanon within seconds of each other at around 3.30pm local time, in a synchronized attack against the US-designated terror group Hezbollah.

The group rely heavily on the devices for their communications, after dropping the use of mobile phones due to the risk they carry for hacking or being traced.

Envoy’s relationship with Hezbollah

The envoy has held his position since 2022, but it was not clear if Ambassador Amani was actually carrying a pager himself, or was just in the immediate vicinity of one.

Nevertheless, either way it would support the belief that Iran is deeply involved in Hezbollah’s activities, as previously it has been widely suspected that they have been permitted to host meetings in the Iranian embassy.

Finger pointed at Mossad

Just a few hours before the horrifying situation occurred, Israel announced that the safe return of 60,000 residents who had been displaced from the north of the country on the Lebanon border, was amongst its war goals.

Mossad, who are responsible for intelligence gathering, covert operations and counter-terrorism, has a long history for carrying out sophisticated attacks on foreign soil, and therefore immediately had fingers pointed at them.

Staggering number of eyes lost

Staff at a medical centre in Beirut described the scenes that they were faced with as “horrific” explaining how most of the wounds were to the face, eyes and hands.

Professor Elias Warrak, an ophthalmologist, made the astonishing declaration that he had removed more eyes on the day than he had during his whole career spanning a quarter of a century, with more than 70% of those injured losing an eye or eyes.

Alarming breakdown in security

For an organisation that prides itself on strict security measures, the attack is a humiliating blow and is likely to trigger an intensive internal investigation, as there appears to have been a severe infiltration into their communications network.

Essentially, in one fell swoop, Israel has been able to put out of action hundreds, probably even thousands, of Hezbollah fighters, some permanently.