Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, asked Iran to help secure a cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hezbollah. He appeared to be urging it to press the militant group, a close ally of Iran, to agree to a deal that could require it to pull back from the Israel-Lebanon border. Mikati made the comments in talks with Ali Larijani, a top adviser to Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. According to Lebanese media, the U.S. gave Lebanese officials a draft of a proposed cease-fire deal based on a 2009 resolution that would, among other things, require Hezbollah to withdraw from a large border area.

Hundreds of handheld pagers exploded near simultaneously in parts of Lebanon and Syria, killing at least nine people — including members of the militant group Hezbollah and a young girl. Officials in Lebanon say more than 2,700 were wounded on Tuesday, 200 critically. Hezbollah officials tell The Associated Press that the explosions affected a new brand of pagers used by the militant group. The explosions occurred in the suburbs of Beirut and in other areas that are Hezbollah strongholds. Hezbollah blamed the explosions on Israel. AP has reached out to the Israeli military, which declined to comment.