The Japanese manufacturer ICOM announced today that it has stopped producing “for about ten years” the radios believed to have been blown up on Wednesday in Lebanon, killing 20 people and injuring another 450, including members of the movement Hezbollahwhich accused Israel of setting them up with explosives.

“The IC-V82 was a portable wireless 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 our company has discontinued it,” it said in the statement. of ICOM, reacting to newspaper information New York Times and Israeli mediareported in this particular model.

“The production of the batteries required to operate the main unit was discontinued and the holographic seal that allows to distinguish genuine products from counterfeits was not affixed, so it is not possible to confirm whether the product was supplied by our company” always according to Japanese manufacturer.

He added that its products intended for foreign markets are available exclusively through distributors with whom it has signed agreements.

“All our wireless are produced by our subsidiary (…) Wakayama ICOM Inc., in Wayakama Prefecture, based on a strict management system” that has international certification and guarantees that “no parts other than those approved by our company are used” , the announcement continues. After all, “all wireless are manufactured in the same factory”, and nowhere “overseas”.

Hezbollah’s deadly walkie-talkie explosions occurred on day after these buzzers used in particular by members of the Shiite movement, at the time when the funerals of four of the 12 victims were taking place, in a southern suburb of Lebanon.

Hezbollah attributed the two series of blasts to Israel, whose government has made absolutely no public comment. The US has warned both sides against “escalation of any nature” as concerns grow that the war will spread to Lebanon.