STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
We begin with news from Lebanon. Israel's military says it has launched what it's labeling a targeted attack near Beirut. According to a news agency, an explosion struck an area in the southern suburbs. This comes at the end of a week during which pagers and handheld radios carried by the militant and political group Hezbollah were turned into little bombs. Israel has not publicly taken responsibility for exploding pagers, although NPR has learned that Israel did acknowledge this to the United States.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
At least 37 people were killed in those attacks, including two children. Thousands were maimed, and doctors are still treating the wounded. Dr. Elias Warrak is one of them. He's an ophthalmologist and joins me now via Skype. He's calling us from his Advanced Eye Care Hospital near Beirut. Thank you for being on the program, Dr. Warrak.
ELIAS WARRAK: Thank you, Leila.
FADEL: What is the scene like at your hospital?
WARRAK: It's a real nightmare, because most of the injuries, most of the casualties - they lost either one of their eyes or both eyes sometimes. And the facial injuries are really massive because of the explosion of whatever devices they were holding in their hands. We couldn't save much of the eyes. And in some cases, we had even to remove both eyes of the patients because the damage was so great. I mean, you cannot even resuture the eye.
FADEL: Now, you were working until late into the night last night, and you've been performing surgeries since early this morning. What have your days been like since the first wave of blasts took place on Tuesday?
WARRAK: Well, let me tell you, the first day, we left the operating room around 5 in the morning, and the second day, we left at around 2 in the morning. So it has been hectic for the past two or three days. And most of the casualties, they are young people. They are in their 20s. All of the casualties, we requested to do a CT scan for the brain and the orbits, because some of the patients, they had intracranial shrapnel. They had some injuries to the brain, so they had to be operated by neurosurgeons, and then we went in as an ophthalmology team just to treat their eyes. But the - unfortunately, I mean, there is not a single casualty who didn't lose at least one eye.
FADEL: Wow. That's Dr. Elias Warrak, founder and medical director of the Advanced Eye Care Hospital near Beirut. Thank you for taking the time.
WARRAK: Thank you. Thank you, Leila. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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