‘Pagers that exploded in Lebanon were made by co in Budapest’

Associated Press Taipei: A company based in Hungary was responsible for manufacturing the pagers that exploded in Lebanon and Syria in an apparent Israeli operation targeting Hezbollah's communications network, another firm whose brand was used on the devices said Wednesday. Pagers used by the militant group Hezbollah exploded near-simultaneously a day earlier in Lebanon and Syria, killing at least 12 people, including two children, and wounding nearly 3,000. Hezbollah and the Lebanese government blamed Israel for what appeared to be a sophisticated remote attack.

An American official said Israel briefed the United States on Tuesday after the attack, in which small amounts of explosives hidden in the pagers were detonated. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the information publicly. Hezbollah and Israeli forces have exchanged fire nearly daily since Oct 8, the day after a deadly Hamasled attack in southern Israel triggered a massive Israeli counteroffensive and the ongoing war in Gaza. Since then, hundreds have been killed in the strikes in Lebanon and dozens in Israel, while tens of thousands on each side of the border have been displaced.

Tuesday's attack and the fact that Hezbollah blamed Israel renewed fears that the two foes could lead to all-out war. Despite periodic cycles of escalation, the two have carefully avoided that so far, but Israeli leaders have issued a series of warnings in recent weeks that they might escalate operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon. The AR-924 pagers used in the attack were manufactured by BAC Consulting KFT, based in the Hungarian capital of Budapest, according to a statement released by Gold Apollo, a Taiwanese firm that authorised the use of its brand on the pagers. BAC appeared to be a shell company. According to the cooperation agreement, we authorise BAC to use our brand trademark for product sales in designated regions, but the design and manufacturing of the products are solely the responsibility of BAC, Gold Apollo said in a statement.