Who made the exploding pagers? The messy global trail behind Lebanon blasts
Gold Apollo electronics manufacturer in Taiwan said that it did not make the pagers used by members of Hezbollah that exploded simultaneously across Lebanon.
HONG KONG — An electronics manufacturer in Taiwan said Wednesday that a company based in Hungary made the pagers bearing its brand that were used by members of the militant group Hezbollah and exploded simultaneously across Lebanon on Tuesday.
At least 12 people were killed and more than 2,750 others were injured in the blasts, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. In a statement Wednesday, the Iran-backed Hezbollah said there would be a “severe reckoning” over the blasts, blaming Israel.
Israel has not commented directly on the explosions, but two U.S. officials and a senior diplomat in the Middle East told NBC News that Israel was behind the attack.
Images circulating online show destroyed pagers in Lebanon whose features are consistent with those made by Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. The company’s founder and president, Hsu Ching-kuang, told reporters Wednesday that the pagers were made by another company licensed to use its brand.
“There is an agent in Europe whom we have cooperated with for three years, they are the agent for all of our products,” Hsu said at the company’s offices in the northern Taiwanese city of New Taipei.
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