More explosions have been heard in Beirut and other cities in Lebanon on Wednesday, with reports emerging that hand-held pagers have detonated.
At least 3,000 have been injured after the blasts went off across Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday
More explosions have been heard in Beirut and other cities in Lebanon on Wednesday, with reports emerging that hand-held pagers have detonated.
At least one of the blasts reportedly took place near a funeral organized by Iran-backed Hezbollah for those killed the previous day when thousands of pagers used by the group exploded across the country.
State media have said that three people have been killed, while the country’s health ministry said more than 100 had been injured.
Gold Apollo’s founder Hsu Ching-Kuang released a statement naming BAC Consulting, located in Budapest, Hungary, as the manufacturer of the pagers that exploded in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, Israel decided to blow up the pagers carried by Hezbollah members earlier than planned over fears the operation would be discovered, US officials have said.
Twelve people including two children were killed and nearly 3,000 were wounded after the handheld devices simultaneously detonated across Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday afternoon.
“It was a use it or lose it a moment,” one US official told Axios about the reasoning Israel gave Washington for the timing of the attack.
Meanwhile, a Lebanese security source claimed Israel’s spy agency Mossad planted explosives in thousands of the devices months before they exploded.
The Iran-backed militant group has vowed to retaliate against Israel, whose military declined to comment on the blasts.
Frustrations over ceasefire talks
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed frustration at surprise escalations that threaten to derail efforts to broker a cease-fire deal in Gaza.
He added that the United States is continuing to assess the deadly attack that caused pagers used by Hezbollah to explode in Lebanon.
While Israel has not publicly spoken on responsibility in the pager attack, a US official has said Israel briefed the United States after the explosions. The United States, Egypt and other international partners are working for an agreement between Israel and Hamas to halt nearly a year of war in Gaza and release hostages held by the militant group. “Time and again” when the US and other mediators believe they are making progress on a cease-fire deal in Gaza, “we’ve seen an event that … threatens to slow it, stop it, derail it,” Blinken said in response to a question about the previous day’s explosions in Lebanon.
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.
Also special sources told Sky News Arabia that Mossad arranged for a quantity of the highly explosive “PETN” to be planted inside the battery of Hezbollah’s pagers, and it was detonated by raising the temperature of the battery.
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
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.
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, APOLLO POWER TECHNOLIGY CO.,LTD.
The firm did not immediately reply to questions from Reuters. Hezbollah did not reply to questions from Reuters on the make of the pagers.
But Gold Apollo’s founder Hsu Ching-Kuang 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 reportedly 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.
Independence / Reuters/ YL
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