CNN: Pagers in Lebanon exploded due to explosives hidden in their batteries, sources say

Israel carried out part of its device attack targeting Hezbollah by concealing explosives inside the batteries of pagers brought into Lebanon, according to two high-ranking Lebanese security officials, CNN reports.The pagers used in the controlled explosions were switched off at the time of the attack on September 17, which meant they did not receive the message that caused the compromised devices to detonate.One of the Lebanese security sources told CNN the way in which the explosive material had been hidden inside the pagers’ batteries was so sophisticated that it could not be detected, but did not elaborate further as to what sort of checks the devices had gone through before entering Lebanon.The second high-ranking security source said that he had examined one of the compromised pagers and witnessed its controlled explosion. He told CNN that the explosive material was “laced” inside the pager’s lithium battery and virtually undetectable. He added that he had never seen anything like it.Sean Moorhouse, a former British Army officer and explosive ordinance disposal expert, said that only a detonator and explosive charge would have been needed to weaponize the pagers, which already have the other three components.“It had to be done in such a way to make it invisible,” Moorhouse said, adding that one way to do that could have been modifying the battery itself—implanting an electronic detonator and small explosive charge inside of its metal casing, which would have made it impossible to detect with imaging, for example X-rays.Other experts who reviewed footage of the blasts also said that explosive devices appeared to have been hidden in the pagers, suggesting a sophisticated supply chain attack involving a state actor.