The pagers, deemed by Hezbollah to be safer than cellphones, were probably rigged with explosives before they were delivered to Lebanon, experts said.

The AR-924 pager, advertised as "rugged," contains a rechargeable lithium battery and could receive texts of up to 100 characters. It also claimed to have up to 85 days of battery life, crucial in Lebanon, where electricity outages are commonplace following years of economic collapse.

Pagers used by the militant group Hezbollah exploded near-simultaneously Tuesday in Lebanon and Syria, killing at least nine people, including an 8-year-old girl, and wounding nearly 3,000