Iran tells Hezbollah chief Israel will face 'crushing response' after comms attack

DUBAI (Reuters) - Israel will face "a crushing response from the axis of resistance", Iran's Revolutionary Guards Commander Hossein Salami told Hezbollah Chief Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday according to state media, after attacks on Lebanese Hezbollah's communication devices.

The axis of resistance refers to Iran-aligned armed groups in the Middle East, including Lebanon's Hezbollah, Yemen's Houthis, and Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces.

Lebanon and Hezbollah have blamed Israel for the attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday that killed 37 people and wounded around 3,000, although Israel has not directly commented on the attacks, which security sources say were probably carried out by its Mossad spy agency.

"Such terrorist acts are undoubtedly the result of the Zionist regime's (Israel) despair and successive failures. This will soon be met with a crushing response from the axis of resistance and we will witness the destruction of this bloodthirsty and criminal regime," Salami said in his message to Nasrallah.

Iran and Israel often threaten each other with the destruction of their respective regimes, following decades of tensions which culminated in Iran directly launching drones and missiles on Israel last April, following a deadly Israeli strike on its embassy compound in Syria.

Nasrallah spoke on Thursday, saying the deadly attacks that blew up Hezbollah radios and pagers "crossed all red lines" and "could be called a declaration of war."

(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom, Editing by William Maclean)