[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A pager bomb attack that left roughly 2,800 Hezbollah members and civilians injured and 12 dead in Lebanon and Syria yesterday was authored by Israel's Mossad spy agency and the IDF, several security sources claim.
The Lebanese group earlier this year ordered thousands of pagers to conduct communications after leader Hassan Nasrallah declared smartphones would be more susceptible to cyber attacks by Israeli forces.
Israeli military and intelligence personnel managed to access 5,000 pagers 'at the production level' and insert a small amount of high explosives months before they were imported to Lebanon, according to several security sources who spoke to Reuters.
'The Mossad injected a board inside of the device that has explosive material that receives a code. It's very hard to detect it through any means. Even with any device or scanner,' a Lebanese security source said.
The source claimed Hezbollah ordered the pagers from a Taiwanese company called Gold Apollo, but executives there said the devices were actually manufactured and sold under licence by BAC Consulting in Budapest, Hungary.
Elijah J. Magnier, a Brussels-based senior political risk analyst, later said he spoke with Hezbollah members who had examined pagers that failed to explode. The pagers appeared to receive a coded error message sent to all the devices that caused them to vibrate and beep for some 10 seconds. When the user pressed the pager's button to cancel the alert, the explosives were detonated - a design that would ensure the pager was being held by the user at the time of the blast to inflict maximum damage.
The months-long operation by Mossad and the IDF represents an unprecedented security breach for Hezbollah, which vowed to exact revenge on Israel and continue its support for ally Hamas amid the ongoing war in Gaza.
'The resistance will continue today, like any other day, its operations to support Gaza, its people and its resistance which is a separate path from the harsh punishment that the criminal enemy (Israel) should await in response to Tuesday's massacre,' a statement read.
A US security official today said that the attack was planned for a later date as part of an 'all-out offensive' against Hezbollah, but Israel chose to detonate the devices early amid concerns the Lebanese group had become aware of the plan.
'It was a use it or lose it moment,' the source told Axios on condition of anonymity.
The string of detonations, which began around 3:30pm local time yesterday and continued for roughly an hour, gave way to widespread panic and chaos across Beirut's southern suburbs, southern Lebanon and even in neighbouring Syria. Among the 12 people reportedly killed were two girls, aged eight and ten, and several Hezbollah fighters, as well as the son of a Lebanese MP. Iran later confirmed its ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, sustained injuries to his face and hand.
More than 2,800 people were ultimately injured in the blasts, 300 of whom were rushed to hospital in critical condition. Early speculation in the wake of the blasts suggested an Israeli hack could have overloaded the lithium ion batteries powering the pagers, which can burn up to 590 degrees celsius (1,100 F) when ignited.
But a slew of security sources and experts have since determined the detonations were caused by an Israeli operation that disrupted the supply chain and inserted explosives into the pagers that were subsequently remotely activated by the coded error message. A former British Army bomb disposal officer explained that an explosive device has five main components: A container, a battery, a triggering device, a detonator and an explosive charge.
'A pager has three of those already,' explained the ex-officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he now works as a consultant with clients on the Middle East.
'You would only need to add the detonator and the charge.'
By the time of the attack, 'the battery was probably half-explosive and half-actual battery,' said Carlos Perez, director of security intelligence at TrustedSec.
Security camera footage shared to social media yesterday appeared to show the moment on Israel sent out its deadly message. A Hezbollah member was seen confusedly lifting his shirt up at a supermarket after his pager, concealed just above his hip, began beeping and lighting up. The device suddenly exploded, crumpling him to the floor as supermarket workers and fellow shoppers panicked and fled.
'Looking at the video, the size of the detonation is similar to that caused by an electric detonator alone or one that incorporates an extremely small, high-explosive charge,' said Sean Moorhouse, a former British Army officer and explosive ordinance disposal expert.
Initial reports suggested the pagers ordered by Hezbollah were supplied by a Taiwanese company called Gold Apollo. But executives this morning said the company had only authorised its brand on the devices, and that they were manufactured and sold by Hungary's BAC Consulting KFT.
'Apollo Gold Corporation has established a long-term private label authorisation and regional agency cooperation with BAC,' a statement read.
'According to the agreement, we authorise BAC to use our brand trademark for production sales in specific regions, but the design and manufacturing of the products are entirely handled by BAC.'
Gold Apollo chair Hsu Ching-kuang told journalists this morning that his company has had a licensing agreement with BAC for the past three years, but did not provide evidence of the contract. The CEO of BAC Consulting, Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono, says on her LinkedIn profile that she has worked as an advisor for various organisations including UNESCO.
She was contacted by NBC and confirmed her company worked with Gold Apollo, but added cryptically: 'I don't make the pagers. I am just the intermediate. I think you got it wrong,' before hanging up.
The AR-924 pager ordered by Hezbollah, advertised as being 'rugged,' contains a rechargeable lithium battery, according to specifications once advertised on Gold Apollo's website before it was apparently taken down Tuesday after the sabotage attack. It could receive text messages of up to 100 characters. It also claimed to have up to 85 days of battery life - a crucial factor in Lebanon, where electricity outages have been common as the tiny nation on the Mediterranean Sea has faced years of economic collapse.
Israel has killed Hamas militants in the past with booby trapped cellphones and it's widely believed to have been behind the Stuxnet computer virus attack on Iran's nuclear program in 2010.
More from regnum.ru
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
Death toll from new explosions in Lebanon rises to 14
The death toll in Lebanon as a result of the second series of explosions of communication devices has risen to 14. This was reported on September 18 by the Al Mayadeen TV channel, citing data from the country's Ministry of Health.
It is noted that at least 450 people were injured.
As previously reported by the Regnum news agency, radios, mobile phones and other means of communication began to explode in Lebanon on September 18. According to the Al-Nahar TV channel, the radios were purchased together with pagers, which detonated en masse in Lebanon on September 17.
On September 18, the Hezbollah movement promised Israel a harsh response to the massacre of the Lebanese people. The movement also called retribution for the sabotage inevitable for Tel Aviv.
The American newspaper The New York Times wrote on September 17 that Israel was behind the mass detonation of pagers in Lebanon. According to the publication, the Israeli side placed explosives in a batch of pagers, which were then purchased by Hezbollah.
| ”Frissons all around, boys and girls! ….and others! We, the mighty New York Times, have revealed more of Israel’s secrets to the WORLD!!” |
Israel's national intelligence service, Mossad, planted a small amount of explosives in 5,000 devices ordered by Hezbollah several months before the latest events, a source told Reuters.
Related from regnum.ru
iPhones Experience Massive Failures After iOS Update
iPhone owners have begun to complain en masse about errors in the operation of their gadgets after the iOS 18 update. This was reported on September 17 by the American newspaper The New York Post.
According to them, the performance of the devices has dropped sharply after this. Users claim that the gadgets have started to discharge quickly, and after connecting to the power supply, the charge is replenished very slowly. Thus, the phone can discharge up to 67% within two hours, even if it is not used, the article notes. In addition, after updating the system, many background processes are launched.
And only a few owners of such smartphones said that the update did not affect their battery charge in any way.
Repair center employees in Russia noted an increase in the number of requests for smartphone repair. In an hour, their number increased to an average of 20. Specialists noted that the most common problems are encountered by owners of models with new parts, batteries and displays: after the update, they began to overheat and break.
As reported by IA Regnum, the updated product line was shown by American Apple as part of the autumn presentation on September 9. The line consists of the standard iPhone 16, the Plus modification, as well as the flagship Pro and Pro Max.
According to the developers, the Apple 16 and Apple 16 Plus in aluminum cases are equipped with the A18 processor, which makes them 40% faster compared to the Apple 15. The phones' cameras have also been updated to 48 megapixels, battery life has been increased, and sound quality has been improved. The smartphones will use artificial intelligence technology.
Sales are scheduled to start in several countries on September 20.
|
[Al Ahram] Leading Salafist political figure Hazem Salah Abu-Ismail criticised what he described as opposition calls for military intervention, saying it would be a "crime" and a coup against constitutionality.