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By Ben Blanchard
NEW TAIPEI, Taiwan (Reuters) -Taiwan’s Gold Apollo stated on Wednesday the pagers that had been used within the detonations in Lebanon on Tuesday weren’t made by it however by an organization known as BAC which has a licence to make use of its model.
At the least 9 individuals had been killed and practically 3,000 wounded when pagers utilized by Hezbollah members detonated concurrently throughout Lebanon on Tuesday.
Photos of destroyed pagers analysed by Reuters confirmed a format and stickers on the again that had been in line with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese safety supply advised Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo.
“The product was not ours. It was solely that it had our model on it,’ Gold Apollo founder and president, Hsu Ching-Kuang, advised reporters on the firm’s places of work within the northern Taiwanese metropolis of New Taipei on Wednesday.
The corporate stated in a press release that the AR-924 mannequin was produced and bought by BAC.
“We solely present model trademark authorization and don’t have any involvement within the design or manufacturing of this product,” the assertion stated.
Hsu earlier stated that the agency with the licence was based mostly in Europe however later declined to touch upon BAC’s location.
Whereas Hsu was assembly with reporters, police officers arrived on the firm.
Hezbollah fighters started utilizing pagers within the perception they might be capable of evade Israeli monitoring of their areas, two sources accustomed to the group’s operations advised Reuters this 12 months.
Hsu stated didn’t understand how the pagers may have been rigged to blow up.
Iran-backed Hezbollah stated it was finishing up a “safety and scientific investigation” into the causes of the blasts.
Israel’s Mossad spy company planted explosives inside 5,000 pagers imported by Lebanese group Hezbollah months earlier than Tuesday’s detonations, in accordance with a senior Lebanese safety supply and one other supply.
Hsu stated Gold Apollo was additionally a sufferer of the incident.
“We is probably not a big firm however we’re a accountable one,” he stated. “That is very embarrassing.”
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Writing by Miyoung Kim; Enhancing by Tom Hogue, Michael Perry and Edwina Gibbs)
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