Japanese firm says it couldn't have made walkie-talkies that exploded in Lebanon

The Japanese maker of the brand of walkie-talkies linked to explosions targeting the Hezbollah armed group that killed 20 people in Lebanon and injured hundreds of others said it could not have made the exploding devices and that theirproduction was discontinued a decade ago.

"There's no way a bomb could have been integrated into one of our devices during manufacturing. The process is highly automated and fast-paced, so there's no time for such things," Yoshiki Enomoto, a director atIcom,told Reuters outside the company's headquarters in Osaka, Japan, on Thursday.

The detonation of hand-held radios used by Hezbollah on Wednesday in Beirut's suburbs and the Bekaa Valley followed a series of electronic pager explosions on Tuesday that killed at least 12 people, including two children, and injured 3,000 others. Around 450 people were injured when the two-way radiosreportedly bearing the Icom logoexploded on Wednesday.

WATCH | Handheld radios detonated across Lebanon on Wednesday:

Second wave of deadly device explosions across Lebanon

9 days ago

Duration 2:18

Authorities in Lebanon say at least 20 people were killed and hundreds injured in a second wave of device explosions, including at funerals for three Hezbollah members and a child killed by exploding pagers on Tuesday.

Production halted a decade ago, Icom says

Icomhas said it halted production of the radio models identified in the attack a decade ago and that most of those still on sale were counterfeit.

"If it turns out to be counterfeit, then we'll have to investigate how someone created a bomb that looks like our product. If it's genuine, we'll have to trace its distribution to figure out how it ended up there," Enomoto said.

On Wednesday, Taiwanese pager firm Gold Apollo also distanced itself from exploding devices that appeared to bear its brand, stating thatit had only licensed out its brandand was not involved in the production of the devices.

WATCH | Taiwanese pager maker says company was not involved in production of exploding device:

Taiwanese pager maker says it did not make devices used in Lebanon blasts

10 days ago

Duration 3:01

The Gold Apollo-brand pagers used in detonations in Lebanon were made by Budapest-based BAC Consulting, the Taiwanese pager firm says. Gold Apollo says it licensed out its brand to the Hungarian company and was not involved in the production of the devices.

In a statement on its website Thursday, Icomsaid that the IC-V82 handheld radio implicated in the explosions Wednesday was produced and exportedfrom 2004 to 2014, and has not been shipped from Icomsince.

"All of our radios are manufactured at our production subsidiary, Wakayama Icom Inc., in Wakayama Prefecture, under a strict management system based on ISO 9001/14001/27001, so no parts other than those specified by our company are used in a product," the company stated."In addition, all of our radios are manufactured at the same factory, and we do not manufacture them overseas."