Breaking News:
A Lebanese security source confirmed to Al Jazeera that the pagers that exploded in a number of Lebanese regions were booby-trapped in advance, with the highly explosive material “PETN”
At least eight people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members – including fighters and medics – detonated simultaneously across Lebanon.
Here’s what we know so far about the pager blasts.
WHEN AND WHERE DID THE BLASTS TAKE PLACE?
The detonations started around 3:30 pm local time in Lebanon in the country’s south, the southern suburbs of Beirut known as Dahiyeh and the eastern Bekaa valley – all Hezbollah strongholds.
They lasted for around an hour, with Reuters witnesses and residents of Dahiyeh saying they could still hear explosions at 4:30 pm local time.
According to security sources and footage reviewed by Reuters, some of the detonations took place after the pagers rang, causing the fighter to put their hands on them or bring them up to their faces to check the screen.
HOW BIG WERE THE EXPLOSIONS?
The blasts were relatively contained, according to footage reviewed by Reuters. In two separate clips from the CCTV footage of supermarkets, the blasts appeared to only wound the person wearing the pager or closest to it.
Footage shot at hospitals and shared on social media appeared to show individuals with injuries of varying degrees, including to the face, missing fingers, and gaping wounds at the hip where the pager was likely worn.
The blasts did not appear to cause major damage or start any fires.
WHAT TYPE OF PAGER EXPLODED
Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo, a Taiwan-based pager manufacturer. Here are the contact information of the company
APOLLO POWER TECHNOLIGY CO.,LTD.
8F, No. 165, Hsin-Yi Road, Banqiao District, New Taipei City
22061, TaiwanTEL: 886-2-2956-8831 FAX: 886-2-2956-8553 EMAIL: wang@apollotw.com powermexic@hotmail.com
The firm did not immediately reply to questions from Reuters. Hezbollah did not reply to questions from Reuters on the make of the pagers.
BOOBY-TRAPPED
A Lebanese security source confirmed to Al Jazeera that the pagers that exploded in a number of Lebanese regions were booby-trapped in advance.
In the same context, special sources told Sky News Arabia that Mossad arranged for a quantity of the highly explosive “PETN” to be installed in the battery of Hezbollah’s pagers, and it was detonated by raising the temperature of the battery.
Son of Lebanese MP Ali Ammar was killed in the pager explosion and the son of MP Hassan Fadlalah was injured and is undergoing surgery at the AUH
Pentaerythritol tetranitrate, also known as PENT, pentyl, PENTA, TEN, corpent, or penthrite, is an explosive material. It is the nitrate ester of pentaerythritol, and is structurally very similar to nitroglycerin. Penta refers to the five carbon atoms of the neopentane skeleton, according to Wikipedia.
PETN is attractive for terrorist use, as it is one of the most powerful explosives available and is sensitive enough for blasting caps and detonation cords, but very stable . It can be used either as a powder or mixed with phlegmatizing materials to form shaped charges, such as the plastic explosive Semtex (Moore et al., 2010). PETN has been involved in several high-profile bombing incidents including the Pan Am 103 ‘Lockerbie’ bombing in 1988 and the ‘Shoe Bomber’ bombing attempt in 2001, among others
In turn, the American website “Axios” indicated, quoting a source, that Israeli intelligence estimated before the operation that Hezbollah would likely respond with a major attack on Israel.
Hezbollah fighters had begun using pagers as a low-tech means to try and avoid Israeli tracking of their locations, two sources familiar with the group’s operations told Reuters earlier this year.
Three security sources told Reuters that the pagers that detonated were the latest model brought in by Hezbollah in recent months.
WHAT CAUSED THE PAGERS TO EXPLODE?
Hezbollah said it was carrying out a “security and scientific investigation” into the causes of the blasts.
Diplomatic and security sources speculated that the explosions could have been caused by the devices’ batteries detonating, possibly through overheating.
Experts were mystified by the explosions but several who spoke to Reuters said they doubted the battery alone would have been enough to cause the blasts.
Paul Christensen, an expert in lithium ion battery safety at Newcastle University said the level of damage caused by the pager explosions seemed inconsistent with known cases of such batteries failing in the past.
“What we’re talking about is a relatively small battery bursting into flames. We’re not talking of a fatal explosion here. I’d need to know more about the energy density of the batteries, but my intuition is telling me that it’s highly unlikely,” he said.
SMEX, a Lebanese digital rights organization, told Reuters that Israel could have exploited a weakness in the device to cause it to explode. It said the pagers could also have been intercepted before reaching Hezbollah and either tampered with electronically or implanted with an explosive device.
Israeli intelligence forces have previously placed explosives in personal phones to target enemies, according to prior reporting in the book Rise and Kill First. Hackers have also demonstrated the ability to inject malicious code into personal devices, causing them to overheat and explode in some instances.
WHAT HAVE THE AUTHORITIES SAID ABOUT THE BLASTS?
Lebanon’s foreign ministry called the explosions an “Israeli cyber attack,” but did not provide details on how it had reached that conclusion.
Lebanon’s information minister said the attack was an assault on Lebanon’s sovereignty.
Israel’s military declined to comment to Reuters questions on the pager blasts.
War monitor says 14 wounded in Syria in Hezbollah pager blasts
Fourteen people were wounded in Syria on Tuesday when pagers used by Hezbollah members exploded, a Britain-based war monitor said, adding to a toll of at least eight dead and 2,750 wounded in Lebanon.
“Fourteen people whose nationalities are unknown have been wounded in Damascus and its countryside after pagers used by Hezbollah exploded,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
A source close to Lebanon-based Hezbollah told AFP that some of its members had been wounded in pager blasts in neighbouring Syria, without specifying how many.
US says it was ‘not involved in’ and ‘not aware in advance’ of Lebanon pager blasts
The United States said Tuesday it was not aware in advance and had no involvement in mass explosions of pagers that targeted Lebanese militia Hezbollah.
“I can tell you that the US was not involved in it, the US was not aware of this incident in advance and, at this point, we’re gathering information,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
Update:
Gold Apollo’s founder Hsu Ching-Kuang has released a statement naming BAC Consulting, located in Budapest, Hungary, as the manufacturer of the pagers that exploded in Lebanon.
Israel’s Mossad spy agency planted a small quantity of explosives inside thousands of pagers ordered by the militant group Hezbollah months before the explosions, a Lebanese security source has told the Reuters news agency.
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