Israel's Mossad Called Planting Explosives In 5,000 Pager Ordered By Hezbollah

Illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/Wiki-observer)

JAKARTA - Israel's spy agency, Mossad, planted explosives in 5,000 pagers imported by Lebanese militant group Hezbollah months before Tuesday's explosion, senior Lebanese security sources and other sources said.

The operation was an unprecedented security breach that caused thousands of pagers to explode across Lebanon, killing nine people and injuring nearly 3,000 others, including members of the group and Iran's Ambassador to Beirut.

Lebanese security sources said the pager came from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo.

A senior Lebanese security source said the group had ordered 5,000 pagers from Gold Apollo, which sources said were brought to the country earlier this year.

A senior Lebanese source said the device had been modified by the Israeli spy service "at production levels."

"Mossad injects a board into a device containing explosives that receive the code. It is very difficult to detect it in any way. Even with any device or scanner," the source said.

The source said 3,000 pagers exploded when a coded message was sent to them, which simultaneously activated the explosives.

Another security source told Reuters that up to three grams of explosives were hidden in the new pager and "undetected" by Hezbollah for months.

Gold founder Hsu Ching-Kuang said the pager used in the explosion was made by a company in Europe that has the right to use the Taipei-centric company brand, whose name could not be confirmed immediately.

"The product doesn't belong to us. It's just that there's our brand on it," he told reporters on Wednesday, without naming the company that made the device.

A senior Lebanese security source identified a photo of the pager model, AP924, which other pagers wirelessly received and displayed text messages but were unable to make phone calls.

A destroyed pager image analyzed by Reuters shows a format and sticker on the back consistent with a pager made by Gold Apollo.

Lebanese Health Ministry said the death toll from the blast wave rose from eight to nine on Tuesday night while the number injured remained at 2,750.

As previously reported, a wave of explosions rocked southern Lebanon, a southern suburb of Beirut known as Dahiyeh and the eastern Bekaa Valley, all of which were Hezbollah's strongholds.

"We consider Israel's enemies to be fully responsible for this criminal aggression," Hezbollah said in a statement late Tuesday.

"These dangerous and criminal enemies will surely receive commensurate retaliation for this sinful aggression, both from places that are taken into account and those that are not taken into account," the statement added.

Hezbollah did not say what they believed was the cause of the explosion of the pager. Meanwhile, the Israeli military was reluctant to respond to questions about the explosion.

The Lebanese Ministry of Health said the death toll from the blast wave increased from eight to nine on Tuesday night while the number injured reached 2,750.