Lebanon pager blasts: How Israel's Mossad planted explosives in Hezbollah devices and detonated them remotely
Hezbollah decided to use pagers after its Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah had warned that mobiles phones are more dangerous than Israeli spies
Hezbollah decided to use pagers after its Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah had warned that mobiles phones are more dangerous than Israeli spies
Hezbollah decided to use pagers after its Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah had warned that mobiles phones are more dangerous than Israeli spies
Hezbollah decided to use pagers after its Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah had warned that mobiles phones are more dangerous than Israeli spies
Hundreds of members of the Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah were killed after their pagers exploded simultaneously in Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday. At least nine people were killed while around 3,000 more were injured. One of the injured was Iran's envoy to Beirut.
Why did Hezbollah operatives user pagers?
A few months ago, Hezbollah, a Shia group backed by Iran, ordered aroud 5,000 made-in-Taiwan AP924 pagers, revealed sources interviewed by Reuters. The decision to use pagers instead of mobile phones came after Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah on February 13 warned the group's supporters that their phones were more dangerous than Israeli spies. He advised them to break, bury or lock them in an iron box.
THE WEEK had earlier reported that Hezbollah militants had resorted to using pagers as the main means to communicate as they cannot capture sound, don’t have cameras and leave very low digital signature.
Like other pagers, AP924, manufactured by Taiwan-based Gold Apollo, wirelessly transmit and display text messages while telephone calls are not allowed. It allowed Hezbollah operatives to avoid getting location-tracked by Israel.
Is Mossad behind Hezbollah pager blasts?
Israel's spy agency Mossad reportedly planted three gram of expolsives inside the AP924 pagers procured by Hezbollah, sources told the news agency. Senior Lebanese officials believe the pagers, created by Gold Apollo, were modified by Mossad "at the production level."
The Mossad reportedly inserted a board into the explosive-laden pager that recieves a coded message. This board could not be detected by the devices or scanners used by Lebanese security agencies. Around 3,000 pagers exploded simultaneously after a message activated them.