The explosions killed at least nine people and injured nearly 3,000 others, when devices used by members of the Lebanese Hezbollah group exploded simultaneously.
Hsu added that the devices that exploded were manufactured by a company in Europe, which has the right to use the Taiwanese company’s trademark.
“The product is not ours. It just has our brand,” he added. Hsu did not name the company he said made the devices, and said his company was also a victim of the incident.
“We are a responsible company. This is very embarrassing,” he continued.
Two sources familiar with Hezbollah’s operations told Reuters this year that its fighters had begun using the devices so that Israel could not detect their locations.
Earlier, the New York Times reported that the pagers that were simultaneously detonated by Hezbollah militants on Tuesday were manufactured in Taiwan and rigged by Israel before they reached Lebanon.
According to the report, at least 11 people were killed according to an updated toll and more than 3,000 others were injured, including the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, when radio pagers exploded in various parts of Lebanon in an unprecedented attack. The Lebanese government and Hezbollah held Israel responsible for the explosions. However, Israel has not issued any official comment on the incident.
In the United States, the New York Times quoted American officials and other unnamed sources as saying that the pagers that exploded were manufactured by the Taiwanese company Gold Apollo. The report added that Israel tampered with the devices and planted small amounts of explosives inside each one before shipping them to Lebanon.
A senior Lebanese security source and another source told Reuters that the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad planted small amounts of explosives inside 5,000 Taiwanese-made pagers ordered by the Lebanese Hezbollah group months before Tuesday’s bombings.
The source added that “Mossad injected a board inside the devices containing an explosive material that receives a code that is very difficult to detect by any means, even using any device or scanner.”
The source said that three thousand pagers exploded when they received an encrypted message that led to the activation of explosive materials simultaneously.
Another security source told Reuters that up to three grams of explosives were hidden in the new communications devices and were not discovered by the group for several months.
#Gold #Apollo #Exploding #Pagers #Lebanon