The case of the explosive pagers bought by Islamic group Hezbollah that exploded in Lebanon in mid-September is just getting more intriguing.
A recent investigation has given a deep dive into the making of the pagers itself, and how explosives were inserted inside of it, as well as placed in such a manner that they would not be detected by Hezbollah members even if put under X-ray.
Along with that, the investigation also found that these pagers had one major weakness that made it possible for Israel to explode them. It is part of Israel’s operation to create serious damage not just to Lebanon which enjoys support from Iran, another one of Israel’s enemies but also to increase regional conflict in the Middle East.
What Did The Investigation Reveal?
Reuters conducted an investigation into Hezbollah’s exploding pagers, and based on that, along with information provided by an unnamed source, it revealed interesting things. The source reportedly had first-hand knowledge of the pagers and provided teardown photos of the battery pack.
According to Reuters, the agents behind the building of the pagers designed it so that the battery would hide a “small but potent charge of plastic explosive and a novel detonator” that would not even alert the X-ray.
Hezbollah reportedly uses airport security scanners to verify whether any new items are safe. The scanners trigger alarms if an explosive is inside an item. However, since the pager was designed specifically to not alert the alarms, the organisation thought the items were safe.
The Lebanese source revealed that the battery pack had a “thin, square sheet with six grams of white pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) plastic explosive” hidden between two regular rectangular battery cells.
In addition, a strip of highly flammable material was also included in the space left between the battery cells, and this would act as the detonator, as per the source. After this combination was inserted into a black plastic sleeve, it was virtually undetectable by an X-ray since no metal components were used in it.
Read More: Pagers, Walkie Talkies Blast In Lebanon: Could Your Smartphone Be Next?
The source and two bomb experts on anonymity also said “The assembly was unusual because it did not rely on a standard miniaturised detonator, typically a metallic cylinder.”
To ensure that they would get away with these pagers, agents even created fake online stores, pages, and posts, so that in case Hezbollah did any research, they would be lured into a false sense of assurance by such content.
This was because the pagers and the battery labelled LI-BT783 do not exist in the market. As per a former spy, “You want to make sure that if they look, they find something,” and that “Not finding anything is not good.” The agents even sold fake pager models called AR-24 using the Taiwanese brand, Gold Apollo.
According to the Reuters report, Gold Apollo’s chairman, Hsu Ching-Kuang, was approached around three years ago by Teresa Wu, and someone called big boss, called Tom.
Wu, now a former employee, wanted to discuss a license agreement and Hsu gave them the go-ahead to design and market their products under the Gold Apollo brand name.
As per Reuters “The chairman said he was not impressed by the AR-924 when he saw it, but still added photos and a description of the product to his company’s website, helping give it both visibility and credibility. There was no way to directly buy the AR-924 from his website.”
Hsu was not aware of any explosives inside the pagers or any planned attack on Hezbollah, while Wu has not communicated with the media recently.
The pagers were made in such a way that the battery pack would produce a spark, thus triggering “the detonating material, and trigger the sheet of PETN to explode,” as per two bomb experts who spoke with Reuters. This whole thing resulted in the battery pack having much less power than usual.
A 35g battery pack would normally carry an energy capacity of around 8.75Wh, however, these doctored pager batteries only had an energy capacity of 2.22Wh.
As per the investigation, Hezbollah even took note of the faster battery drain, however, they dismissed it and handed it over to its members regardless.
Mossad, an Israeli intelligence agency is said to be behind the pager and walkie-talkie attacks, according to two Western security sources.
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: Reuters, Hindustan Times, Times of India
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This post is tagged under: Hezbollah, Hezbollah Israel, Hezbollah pager blasts, Hezbollah pager blasts batter, Hezbollah pagers, lebanon, lebanon blasts, lebanon pager blasts, Israel, pagers, pager blasts,
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