The World and Vietnam Newspaper updates new developments surrounding a series of pager explosions across Lebanon on September 17, killing 9 people and injuring more than 2,700.
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| The remains of a pager after it exploded in Lebanon. (Source: AFP) |
While Israel has yet to comment on the allegations that it was behind the shocking incident, Axios news agency quoted three anonymous US officials as saying that it was Israeli intelligence agencies that decided to act.
The officials said the bombing of pagers and other equipment used by Hezbollah was due to concerns that the militant group could detect covert Israeli operations.
According to Axios , a former Israeli official said that the country's special services intended to use booby-trapped pagers they had planted in Hezbollah ranks in a surprise attack.
Two US officials said Israel had not given Washington advance notice of the planned operation. Israeli officials knew that a major escalation was possible after the incident, with the military on high alert for a possible Hezbollah response.
The Israeli military struck the batteries of the pagers, leading to the explosion, the source said, adding that the injured were being transported to hospitals in the Lebanese capital Beirut and Dahieh in the southern suburbs.
Meanwhile, Reuters news agency quoted a source as saying that the Hezbollah Islamic movement had ordered the Taiwanese (Chinese) company Gold Apollo to produce the pagers. However, the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad had planted a small amount of explosives in 5,000 of these pagers.
However, Gold Apollo CEO Xu Qingguang confirmed on September 18 that the pagers that exploded in many areas of Lebanon had nothing to do with Gold Apollo, but were manufactured and developed by a Hungarian company.
According to Mr. Xu Qingguang, about three years ago, Gold Apollo signed a cooperation agreement with a European company. At first, this European company only participated in the distribution of Gold Apollo products, but later independently began to develop the AR-924 pager, which is an explosive type.
The two sides agreed that the pagers developed by the European distributor would be sold under the Gold Apollo logo. The Gold Apollo director stressed: “Both the development and production of the explosive pagers were done overseas, they have nothing to do with Taiwan (China).”
In its statement, Gold Apollo asserted that the company had established a "long-term partnership" with Budapest-based partner BAC Consulting KFT to use the brand and model of pagers mentioned in the media as "manufactured and sold by BAC".
Hungary has not commented.
Responding to this latest incident, on September 18, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated that the pager explosion requires investigation and international attention. Experts must make the necessary assessment of this explosion.
Source: https://baoquocte.vn/vu-no-may-nhan-tin-o-lebanon-he-lo-am-muu-phia-sau-nga-binh-luan-dai-loan-trung-quoc-khang-dinh-chang-dinh-liu-286775.html
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