Supply chain interference suspected as cause of pager detonations

In an apparently calculated attack, pagers began exploding in Beirut at around 1530 local time and lasted for about an hour.

A senior Lebanese security source and another source told Reuters that Mossad, Israel’s intelligence and counter terrorism agency, planted a small amount of explosives inside 5,000 Taiwan-made pagers ordered by Hezbollah months before yesterday’s detonations.

According to the BBC, Taiwanese electronics manufacturer, Gold Apollo, has denied it was involved in the attack. In the same report, company founder Hsu Ching-Kuang said Gold Apollo had signed an agreement with a European based company to manufacture the devices and use his company’s name.

The Council on Foreign Relations says Hezbollah is a Shiite Muslim political party and militant group based in Lebanon that has been designated a terrorist organisation by the United States and several other countries. The organisation opposes Israel and Western powers operating in the Middle East, and it functions as a proxy of Iran.