Japanese company says it ended production of walkie-talkies used in Lebanon blasts 10 years ago

Sept. 19 (UPI) -- Japan's Icom Inc. said Thursday that it had not manufactured the walkie-talkies that exploded in attacks targeting Hezbollah throughout Lebanon on Wednesday.

Icom said in a statement it was investigating the matter in the wake of the attacks that used walkie-talkies featuring the company's brand name.

"The IC-V82 is a handheld radio that was produced and exported, including to the Middle East, from 2004 to October 2014," the company said. "It was discontinued about 10 years ago, and since then, it has not been shipped from our company."

Thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies allegedly used by Hezbollah members and loaded with explosives killed at least 32 people and wounded over 3,200 on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Explosives were inserted into the devices next to the batteries.

"The production of the batteries needed to operate the main unit has also been discontinued, and a hologram seal to distinguish counterfeit products was not attached, so it is not possible to confirm whether the product shipped from our company," Icom said Thursday.

Mitsuru Fukuda, professor of risk management at Nihon University, said these exploding communication devices could lead companies to tighten security in supply chains in response to what he said may be a new type of terrorism.

"This may increase pressure on companies to expand risk oversight of their supply chains," he said.

Israel is widely believed to be behind the attacks, with Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant declaring Wednesday the blasts signaled Israel was at "the start of a new phase in the war" but Israel has not directly claimed responsibility for the attack.

Another Asian company, Taiwan's Gold Apollo, was the brand name on the pagers that exploded in Lebanon Tuesday.

But Gold Apollo founder Hsu Ching-Kuang asserted his company had nothing to do with the attacks. He said his company trademark was licensed to BAC Consulting, a Hungarian company.

Hezbollah characterized the explosions as "criminal aggression" and said Israel will "certainly receive its just punishment."