The New York Times said BAC was one of three shell companies created to hide the identities of the real makers of the exploding pagers, according to three intelligence sources.
BAC also took on ordinary clients, for which it made a range of ordinary pagers.The pagers intended for Hezbollah were manufactured separately with the explosive PETN added, the sources alleged.
The first pagers were sent in the summer of 2022, but manufacturing increased after a Hezbollah chief warned his followers not to use mobile phones.
In February, Hassan Nasrallah said: “I tell you that the phone in your hands, in your wife’s hands, and in your children’s hands, is the agent. Bury it. Put it in an iron box and lock it.”
He ordered all Hezbollah officers to carry pagers at all times, which would be used to send orders in the event of war.
Two American intelligence officials told the New York Times that thousands of pagers arrived in Lebanon over the summer and were distributed among Hezbollah officers and their allies. Israeli intelligence officers called the pagers “buttons”, to be pushed when the time was right.