Bulgaria to probe company linked to Hezbollah pagers that exploded in Lebanon

Bulgaria will investigate a company linked to the sale of pagers to Lebanon’s terror group Hezbollah that exploded this week in a coordinated attack, the state security agency says.

Bulgaria’s state security agency, DANS, says in a statement that it is working with the interior ministry to probe the role of a company registered in Bulgaria, without naming it.

Bulgarian media reports allege that a Sofia-based company called Norta Global Ltd had facilitated the sale of the pagers, which exploded across Lebanon on Tuesday, killing at least 12 people and wounding 2,800.

The pagers had been distributed by Hezbollah to its members, and they exploded in a coordinated attack allegedly carried out by Israel.

Reuters was not immediately able to confirm the link to Norta. Company officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A lawyer that registered the company at an apartment block in Sofia did not respond to Reuters questions.

Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format consistent with pagers made by Taiwan’s Gold Apollo.

Gold Apollo said yesterday that the pagers were made by Budapest-based BAC Consulting, and the New York Times reported that BAC Consulting was in fact a front company set up by Israeli intelligence officers.

But Hungarian news site Telex reported that the sale was actually facilitated by Norta, citing sources.

The Bulgarian state security agency says that it did not detect any shipments of the suspected pagers on Bulgarian territory.