A Chinese maker of handheld radios has taken a dig at walkie-talkies with its logo that exploded in Lebanon, claiming that it stopped producing the devices ten years ago.
At least 20 people were killed and 450 injured after thousands of walkie-talkies, some used by the armed party Lebanon, exploded across Lebanon on Wednesday.
The products, according to photos and video of the aftereffects of the invasion, appear to be IC-V82 transmitters made by Icom, an Osaka-based telecommunications company.
But Icom says it has n’t produced or exported IC-V82s, nor the chargers needed to operate them, for 10 years.
After hundreds of pager explosions allegedly linked to Chinese company Gold Apollo, which it is the second Eastern company to be involved in bombing incidents in Lebanon this month, at least 12 people died and more than 2,000 were injured in explosions.
Hsu Ching-Kuang, the leader of Gold Apollo, categorically denied that his business was connected to the attacks and that he had given his business name to a firm in Hungary called BAC Consulting, a source the BBC has been unable to reach.
Icom disclosed to the BBC that it was aware of reports that two-way radios with its branding had reportedly exploded in Lebanon, and that it was looking into the situation.
” The IC-V82 is a portable television that was produced and exported, including to the Middle East, from 2004 to October 2014. It was discontinued about 10 years ago, and since then, it has not been shipped from our business”, Icom said in a speech.
It is impossible to tell whether the merchandise shipped from our company because the production of the batteries needed to run the main product has also been discontinued. A image seal to distinguish fraudulent products was not attached.
Icom added that all of its microphones are produced in the same manufacturer in Japan and that authorized producers simply distribute the goods to foreign markets.
A sales representative from Icom’s US company previously claimed that the exploded radios in Lebanon appeared to be knockoffs made by the company, adding that it was simple to locate false types online.
The system is favoured by aspiring television providers and for use in social or emergency contacts, including by persons tracking storms or storms, he said.
It took the BBC a matter of hours to get Icom IC-V82s listed for sale in online sites.
At what point in the source network these products were hacked, and how. Additionally, it’s questionable whether some of them were simply used Icom IC-V82s or fakes, as Mr. Novak claimed.
Lebanon’s Annahar news on Wednesday said the Icom walkie-talkies were old phones.
According to a security cause speaking to a Reuters news agency, reports suggest that Hezbollah purchased the walkie-talkies that exploded five months ago.
Icom produces walkie-talkies and television devices for sea, aircraft and property users, and considers itself a “world head in the professional television market”, according to its website.
With countries like Japan, Taiwan, and China being home to big tech manufacturers that are frequently regarded as a standard of quality, Asia is regarded as a global hotspot for telecoms and technology.
BBC Verify investigated BAC Consulting, the firm linked to the pagers involved in Tuesday’s blasts, and found that the company has a single investor and is registered to a tower in the Hungarian money Budapest’s 14th area.
A further 13 businesses and one person are registered in the same building along with BAC. BBC Verify’s search of a financial information database, however, does not reveal that BAC has any connections to other companies or people.
Its CEO Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono said she knew nothing about the explosions. ” I do n’t make the pagers. I am just the intermediate. I think you got it wrong”, she told NBC.