The United States said on Tuesday it was gathering information after at least eight people were killed and around 2,750 injured when pagers used by members of Hezbollah – including fighters and medics – were detonated simultaneously in Lebanon.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told a regular news conference that the United States is not involved in these incidents and does not know who did this. Lebanon’s Hezbollah has threatened to punish Israel for these incidents.
“We are gathering information about this incident,” Miller said. “I can tell you that the US was not involved in it. The US was not aware of this incident in advance.”
“We are gathering information in the same way that journalists around the world do, to gather the facts about what may have happened,” added Miller.
In response to a question, Miller said that the United States is always concerned about any incident that may cause tension in the Middle East and urged Iran not to use any incident to increase instability.
Miller also said that civilians were not the legitimate targets of any kind of operation.