Initial probe shows Lebanon pagers booby-trapped — security source

BEIRUT, Lebanon — A preliminary investigation has found hundreds of pagers that exploded across Lebanon, killing at least 12 people and wounding up to 2,800, had been booby-trapped, a security official said on Wednesday.

Lebanon had opened a probe into the Tuesday explosions that is still "in its early stages," a judicial official said, adding that security services were working to determine the cause of the blasts, blamed on Israel.

On Wednesday, a new wave of exploding hand-held devices, this time walkie-talkies, killed nine people and wounded more than 300 wounded across Lebanon, the health ministry said.

"Data indicates the devices were pre-programmed to detonate and contained explosive materials planted next to the battery," the official said about Tuesday's blasts, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

The judicial official said the probe was focusing on identifying the type of explosive materials that were planted in the devices and finding out the shipment's "country of origin and where they were booby-trapped".

Some of the devices that exploded were being inspected, the security official said, but "most of them were destroyed and burned".

The official said it was unlikely the lithium batteries inside the devices had heated up and exploded.

"Exploding lithium batteries cause a fire-like incident... that may cause minor burns, but the blast from these devices resulted from highly explosive materials," he told AFP.

A source close to Hezbollah, asking not to be identified, had earlier told AFP that "the pagers that exploded concern a shipment recently imported by Hezbollah" which appear to have been "sabotaged at source".

After The New York Times reported the pagers had been ordered from Taiwanese manufacturer Gold Apollo, the company said they had been produced by its Hungarian partner BAC Consulting KFT.