Hundreds of walkie-talkies—some of which were used by the militant group Hezbollah—exploded across Lebanon on Wednesday, resulting in at least 20 fatalities and 450 injuries.
Based on images and videos captured in the wake of the incident, the devices seem to be Icom, an Osaka-based telecommunications manufacturer, IC-V82 transceivers.
However, Icom claims that it hasn’t manufactured or shipped IC-V82s or the batteries required to run them in ten years.
Following thousands of detonating pagers that were allegedly connected to Taiwanese company Gold Apollo that killed people, this is the second Asian corporation involved in bombing incidents in Lebanon this week.
Hsu Ching-Kuang, the founder of Gold Apollo, vehemently denied that his company was involved in the attacks, claiming that he had licensed his trademark to BAC Consulting, a company located in Hungary, who the
Icom replied to the news that it was looking into claims that two-way radios with its branding burst in Lebanon and that it was aware of the incidents.
“From 2004 until October 2014, the IC-V82 handheld radio was manufactured and exported, with shipments going to the Middle East.” It hasn’t been sent from our company since it was discontinued over ten years ago, according to a statement from Icom.
Additionally, the manufacture of the batteries required to run the main unit as well as a hologram seal to identify fake goods has been stopped.
