Japan's Icom stopped manufacturing the walkie-talkies used in the Lebanese explosions a decade ago

Japanese telecommunications company Icom said on Thursday that for the moment it "cannot confirm" whether its models of "walkie-talkies» were used in the explosions that affected members of the Shiite terrorist organization Hezbollah in Lebanon the day before.

The company based in Osaka He pointed to the possibility that the devices in question were counterfeits of their models or devices that were discontinued a decade ago and had been fitted with modified batteries.

Icom announced today that it was investigating "information gathered by international media" indicating that portable transceiver devices bearing its logo had exploded in Lebanon the day before, in a second wave of simultaneous explosions involving wireless communication devices following those involving pager devices the day before.

The Icom devices involved in the explosions are IC-V82 model walkie-talkies, of which some 160.000 units were produced and sold both in Japan and abroad, including in the Middle East, between 2005 and 2014, the firm said in a second statement released on Thursday.

The devices were discontinued a decade ago and Icom's overseas branches and subsidiaries have not released new versions of them since. Icom also stopped producing and selling the batteries used in the handheld radios.

The Japanese telecommunications company only sells its products abroad through official stores and applies strict export controls under Japanese regulations, Icom added.

All of its radio transmission equipment is produced in Japan and complies with international safety standards for the sector, according to the firm, which added that it does not use parts from other manufacturers in its products.

Company director Yoshiki Enomoto also said that some of the circulating images of the alleged Icom devices that exploded in Lebanon show what could be non-certified batteries that had been modified to explode.

The company official also said that it was "not possible to determine" the distribution channels of its products, or whether the employees in Lebanon were actually from the company, without checking their serial numbers.

The Japanese government, for its part, said it is aware of the above-mentioned information and is gathering details on the matter, according to a statement made today by the spokesman for the Japanese government, Yoshimasa Hayashi, at a press conference.

The latest wave of simultaneous explosions on communications equipment by Hezbollah brought the death toll to 32 people, while some 3.200 were injured.

The Lebanese Civil Defence said in a statement that its teams were involved in extinguishing fires that broke out in dozens of buildings and vehicles due to the explosions of "wireless devices and fingerprint readers."

The unprecedented incidents of recent days have once again raised fears of the outbreak of an open war in Lebanon, against which Israel had already intensified its rhetoric in the previous days, insisting on the need to end Hezbollah's presence on the border. EFE and Aurora