The Japanese electronics manufacturer Icom said it stopped making the walkie-talkie model in 2014 and has warned about fake versions for several years.
The Japanese manufacturer whose name was on handheld radios that exploded in Lebanon said Thursday that it had discontinued the device a decade ago and was investigating what happened.
The company, Icom, a telecommunications equipment maker based in Osaka, Japan, had shipped IC-V82 transceivers — the model whose name is seen on radios in photos and a video of the aftermath of Wednesday’s attacks — to overseas markets, including the Middle East, from 2004 to October 2014.
Icom said in a statement Thursday that it had not shipped any of the IC-V82 radios from its plant in Wakayama, Japan, in roughly a decade. But the company has long warned of what it called a surge in counterfeit IC-V82 transceivers.
Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Yoshimasa Hayashi, said on Thursday that the Japanese government was looking into the matter.
At least 25 people were killed and over 600 injured on Wednesday when walkie-talkies owned by Hezbollah members exploded across Lebanon, the country’s health minister said. It was unclear where Hezbollah purchased the devices that exploded.
Icom, founded in 1954, sells radios and other products in more than 80 countries and has about 1,000 employees. According to the company, it has supplied electronics gear to public safety organizations and the U.S. Department of Defense and Marine Corps.
