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The Budapest firm linked to explosive pagers that killed Hezbollah members

3 months ago
The Budapest firm linked to explosive pagers that killed Hezbollah members

A firm in Hungary’s capital has been linked to thousands of pagers that exploded in Lebanon in an apparent Israeli operation targeting Hezbollah militants, killing 12 people and seriously injuring thousands.

Images of the destroyed devices showed a format and stickers consistent with the AR-924 model of pagers with Gold Apollo branding – a Taiwan-based company.

But the firm’s founder Hsu Ching-Kuang said the devices were actually made under licence in Budapest by a firm called BAC Consulting, using the Gold Apollo name.

BAC’s address in Budapest is a small gated building.

Middle East latest: ‘Israel planted explosives in pagers’

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The blasts were triggered by pagers like these

In a statement given to Sky News in Taiwan, Gold Apollo said: “Apollo Gold Corporation has established a long-term private label authorisation and regional agency cooperation with BAC.

“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.”

The remains of what is said to be one of the exploding pagers
Image:
The remains of what is said to be one of the exploding pagers

Asked about the pagers and the explosions, the CEO of BAC Consulting Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono told Sky News: “I don’t make the pagers. I am just the intermediate. I think you got it wrong.”

A Sky News reporter in Budapest saw people arriving at the BAC Consulting property this morning who identified themselves as plain-clothes officers and asked not to be filmed.

Neighbours said they hadn’t seen anyone going in or out of the building for several weeks until today.

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Explosion at Lebanon market

Twelve people were killed and thousands seriously injured when pagers across Lebanon exploded on Tuesday.

Lebanon’s health minister said as many as 2,800 had been wounded. Some 300 people are in critical condition, with injuries to their eyes and face, while some have had body parts amputated.

Among those killed are two children, an eight-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy, Dr Firass Abiad told Sky News.

“A lot of people who suffered from this attack are non-combatants or civilians,” he said.

“A large number of the population of Lebanon were affected with this attack. And I think a lot of people will be suffering from the aftermath.”

More questions than answers after pager attack

The day after the attack, there are still more questions than answers: how did Israel tamper with the pagers, how were the devices remotely detonated, and, most importantly as we look forward, why now?

Israel has clearly penetrated deep inside Hezbollah. This attack would have taken at least months to plan and prepare, and considerable technological skill to pull it off.

So why choose to play the card now and reveal this extraordinary capability? There are several working theories.

Some reports suggest a small number of Hezbollah officials were growing suspicious of the pagers and had raised concerns. If true, Israel might have chosen to act before they were found out – the ‘use it or lose it’ scenario.

Alternatively, it could have been a deliberate message of deterrence, designed to reveal how compromised Hezbollah’s security is and strike a lightning shock to the organisation. It has certainly achieved that effect.

The third possibility leads us to consider whether this was a precursor to a bigger event. For now, still only a few hours after the attack, that probably remains the most likely explanation.

Read the full analysis here.

A Lebanese security source has told the Reuters news agency that Israel’s Mossad spy agency planted a small amount of explosives inside thousands of pagers ordered by the militant group Hezbollah months before the explosions.

The senior source said the militant group had ordered 5,000 beepers which several other sources said were brought into Lebanon in the spring.

They claimed the devices had been modified by Israel’s spy service “at the production level”.

Another security source told Reuters up to 3g of explosives were hidden in the new pagers that went “undetected” by Hezbollah for months.

Lebanese officials laid the blame on “Israeli aggression”, while Hezbollah promised to retaliate, insisting Israel would receive “its fair punishment” for the blasts.

Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in a cross-border conflict since Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October – sparking the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza – fuelling fears of a wider war in the Middle East.