Exploding pagers: Experts reveal how Israel could have carried out killer attacks

Experts have revealed how Israel may have carried out an unprecedented mass explosion across parts of Lebanon and Syria last night - which killed at least nine people and injured several thousands more.

Members of Hezbollah and an eight-year-old girl were among those who died with Iran’s ambassador also injured, according to reports. A further 2,750 people were wounded – 200 of them critically – and nine killed, Lebanon’s health minister Firas Abiad confirmed.

Hundreds of the devices exploded simultaneously across different parts of Lebanon and Syria. Hezbollah had been using the newly-acquired pagers instead of mobile phones because it was feared phones could be tracked and used to pinpoint deadly missile strikes on its members.

Israel has a long history of being accused of using inventive techniques to eliminate its enemies, although no one has claimed responsibility for the attack. Lebanese officials have accused Israel, who is yet to comment on the blasts.

A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Israel's Mossad spy agency secretly installed a small amount of explosives in thousands of pagers ordered by Hezbollah months before they blew up. The source claimed Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers, which were smuggled into Lebanon in the spring, and that the devices had been tampered with by Israel's spy service "at the production level".

A second security source told Reuters that up to 3g of explosives were hidden in the new pagers, which went undetected by Hezbollah for months. In a statement, the company behind the pagers said: "Apollo Gold Corporation has established a long-term private label authorisation and regional agency cooperation with BAC. According to the agreement, we authorise BAC to use our brand trademark for production sales in specific regions, but the design and manufacturing of the products are entirely handled by BAC."

David Kennedy, a former US National Security Agency intelligence analyst, told CNN the complexity to pull the mass explosion off was "incredible". He said: "It's more likely that Israel had human operatives... in Hezbollah. The pagers would have been implanted with explosives and likely only to detonate when a certain message was received.

"The complexity needed to pull this off is incredible. It would have required many different intelligence components and execution. Human intelligence (HUMINT) would be the main method used to pull this off, along with intercepting the supply chain in order to make modifications to the pagers."

Currently, there are two leading theories about how the detonations occurred. One suggests that the pagers were packed with explosives and triggered remotely, while the other says a cybersecurity breach caused the pagers' lithium-ion batteries to overheat and explode.

A source close to Hezbollah alleged that the incident was a direct result of an "Israeli breach" of its communications, although this has not been confirmed.