The audacious attack on the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah is likely to have effectively halted their operations, at least temporarily, crippled their command and control networks, and injured many of their fighters.

Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah asserted on Tuesday it would retaliate against Israel after blaming it for the simultaneous explosion of thousands of pagers that killed at least nine, drawing further concern from the US and UN over increasing regional tensions.