Japan's Icom said it was highly unlikely that wireless devices that exploded in Lebanon were the company's products. Pictures of the walkie-talkies used by Lebanese armed group Hezbollah that exploded on Wednesday showed labels reading "ICOM" and "made in Japan".

Lebanese officials said that 12 people had been killed on Tuesday, including a young girl. Hezbollah said that at least eight of its fighters were among the day’s dead and more than 2,700 people were injured in Lebanon — including Iran’s ambassador to the country.

For millions of Lebanese, this week's mass explosion of pagers and walkie-talkies, with its bloody aftermath, is painfully similar to the horrific explosion four years ago of haphazardly stored ammonium nitrates that tore through Beirut's port,