Japanese firm says highly unlikely exploding devices were its products
Icom, the Japanese maker of the brand of walkie-talkies linked to explosions targeting Lebanese group Hezbollah, says it could not have made the devices.
“In light of multiple pieces of information that have been revealed so far, chances are extremely low that the wireless devices that exploded were our products,” Icom said in a Friday statement.
Pictures of the Hezbollah walkie-talkies that exploded on Wednesday, killing 20 people and injuring hundreds of others in an attack blamed on Israel, showed labels reading “ICOM” and “made in Japan”.
In the wake of the explosions, Yoshiki Enomoto, a director at Icom, told reporters outside the company’s headquarters in Osaka that “there’s no way a bomb could have been integrated into one of our devices during manufacturing”.
“The process is highly automated and fast-paced, so there’s no time for such things,” he said.
UN Security Council holds emergency meeting after Lebanon blasts
The UN Security Council has held an emergency meeting following blasts that hit communication devices across Lebanon earlier this week. UN Human Rights chief Volker Turk said the attacks constituted a violation of international law.
“These attacks represent a new development in warfare, where communication tools become weapons simultaneously exploding across marketplaces, on street corners and in homes as daily life unfolds,” said Turk.
At least 37 people, including civilians, were killed in the attacks. Lebanon blamed Israel and demanded the Security Council call out the perpetrators and condemn the attack.
“Isn’t this terrorism? When you target a whole population in their cities, streets, markets, shops, and homes while they tend to their daily life,” Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said.
Israel did not claim responsibility. It blamed Hezbollah for the cross-border escalation of rocket attacks, which have displaced tens of thousands of civilians on both sides.
