By Pishtaz | 2024-09-26

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has banned communications devices following recent explosions targeting the wireless devices of Hizbullah elements in Lebanon, senior Iranian security officials said.

The simultaneous explosion of hundreds of pagers and two-way radios (walkie-talkies) on September 17 and 18 dealt a heavy blow to Hizbullah's communications, and has spooked the IRGC and its proxies.

Iran's ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani was among those wounded on September 17, suffering injuries "to the hand and the face," AFP reported.

Hizbullah avoids using Lebanon's state-run telecommunications network because it has been breached by Israel.

It relies on pagers, radios and "an internal telecommunications network that runs parallel to Lebanon's public landlines and has been used for years by commanders and rank and file alike," military analyst Hisham Jaber said.

Most of the handheld devices the IRGC uses are either domestically produced or imported from China and Russia, an Iranian official told Reuters, declining to give details on how the 190,000 members of the IRGC force are communicating.

In the aftermath of the blasts, the IRGC is conducting a large-scale operation to inspect all devices, not just communications equipment, the official said.

Iranian military communications equipment is sometimes sourced from a combination of local and foreign suppliers, and pagers are no longer in use.

"For now, we are using end-to-end encryption in messaging systems," the Iranian official said, pointing to widespread concern among the Iranian regime.

"IRGC officials have reached out to Hizbullah for technical assessments, and several examples of exploded devices have been sent to Tehran for examination by Iranian experts," according to Reuters.

Militias on high alert

In Iraq, IRGC-aligned militias do not use pagers, Lahib Higel, senior analyst for Iraq at the International Crisis Group, told the Washington Post.

A senior member of the so-called "Islamic Resistance in Iraq," an umbrella group that includes Kataib Hizbullah and Asaib Ahl al-Haq, told the newspaper the group was already "very cautious regarding the use of electronic devices."

The group is "fully aware that they are eavesdropping tools," he said.

Fighters are not allowed to have smartphones, and use basic phones they keep switched off and turn on only when necessary, the militia source said, while leaders communicate via wired connections or hand-delivered paper notes.

But after the incidents targeting Hizbullah, orders were issued for "a comprehensive inspection of all other devices," the source said.

"In any war, safe communication is key," International Crisis Group for Iraq, Syria and Lebanon project director Heiko Wimmen told AFP. "If the enemy can penetrate your communication, you are in deep trouble."