From ‘heart attack gun’ to exploding headrest… expert reveals the fiendishly fatal Bond-style gadgets of modern warfare 

FOR months, terrorist Hezbollah operatives lived their lives as normal, communicating with pagers and walkie-talkies in order to avoid eavesdropping from Israel.

Little did they know that the old-fashioned gadgets had been primed with explosives – that is until this week, when they were triggered, killing at least 20 and injuring thousands.

The remains of an exploded pagerAFP

AFP

A walkie-talkie with the battery removed at a funeral in Lebanon[/caption]

Supplied

Philip Ingram MBE, former senior British military intelligence[/caption]

It’s one of the most daring acts of spycraft in recent years, a double-whammy attack that had bombs going off in people’s pockets and left Iran-backed terrorists Hezbollah scared to open their fridges.

But it’s far from the only time agents have used ingenious tech and built booby-traps to turn everyday objects into weapons that kill.

Philip Ingram MBE, a former senior British Military Intelligence officer, spoke to The Sun about just how deadly these gadgets are.

Speaking of his own experience in conflicts, he said: “We’ve seen toys, everyday objects rigged with explosives – you worry constantly.

“We’ve had umbrellas with poisoned pellets used in the streets of London. We’ve had Novichok used in Salisbury. People have even explored microwave weapons.

“The use of novel weapons in warfare is not unusual.”

From a covert gun that fires a frozen dart made of shellfish poison to an exploding car headrest, these devices prove one thing – that if a spy agency makes a target of you, you have good reason to be fearful. 

Exploding headrests

While eavesdropping might be the most common goal of device tampering, this week’s attacks are far from the first time it has been used to deadly effect.

And Israel, in particular, are masters of it. Yahya Ayyash, who was born in 1966, went on to become the chief bomb maker of the terrorist group Hamas. 

He was nicknamed “The Engineer”, and is credited with advancing suicide bombing as a tactic – though of course without doing it himself. 

But thanks to a booby-trapped device, he still met a grizzly end.

In 1996, Israel’s internal security agency, Shin Bet, managed to trick him into answering a call from his father using a Motorola cell phone smuggled into Gaza by a collaborator. 

An Israeli plane overhead picked up the conversation, letting them confirm it was him on the phone.

Inside the phone was 50g of explosives. He was killed instantly. This is far from the only case study too.

X/Charles_Lister

A screengrab of footage showing the explosion of a walkie-talkie exploding at the funeral of a pager victim[/caption]

X

Hezbollah fear anything – from fridges to laptops – could be next to blow[/caption]

TELEGRAM/UNPIXS

A close-up of the remains of an exploded pager[/caption]

In 2008, Imad Mughniyeh – then number two in charge of Hezbollah – was out in Damascus celebrating the 29th anniversary of the Iranian revolution, that saw the imposition of a savage theocratic regime.

But minutes after leaving, a blast ripped apart his car and echoed in the surrounding streets.

While he was out, the headrest in the driver’s seat had been swapped out for a dupe that contained a small high-explosive charge. He was killed instantly.

‘Heart attack gun’

With the recent news and Israel’s history of carrying out similar attacks, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it was just them who did this.

But that could not be further from the truth. America’s own CIA – by definition – is very secretive about the gadgets and devices they have in their arsenal.

Occasionally, however, we see a taste of what such an organisation is capable of.

In 1975, a congressional hearing was held that revealed the CIA was in possession of a weapon that could kill without a trace.

It was nicknamed the “heart attack gun” because for any victim the official cause of death would always be a heart attack.

Alamy

Senator Frank Church holds up the “heart attack gun” at a senate hearing[/caption]

Getty

Fidel Castro, who has frequently been the target of CIA assassination attempts[/caption]

Reuters

The Cuban missile crisis was a Cold War flash point that saw the world come closet to nuclear war[/caption]

The gun fired a frozen dart of water and shellfish toxin.

When it entered the victim, the dart would melt, releasing the poison into the victim’s body. 

The shellfish toxins would then shut down the cardiovascular system, perfectly mimicking a heart attack and causing death in just minutes.

The only trace left would be a small red mark where the dart entered the body, which would be impossible to spot unless you knew what you were looking for. 

Its development began when a young researcher at the CIA, Mary Embree, was asked to find an undetectable poison.

Due to the secrecy surrounding the weapon, it is unknown if it was ever used.

However, the Senate committee that exposed the gun’s existence also investigated plans to assassinate leaders such as Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Rafael Trujillo, leader of the Dominican Republic.

Such an operation was unlikely to happen, however.

Speaking to the Daily Star, terrorism expert Anthony Glees said: “Not only was this likely to be impossible unless there was a massive lapse of security around someone like Castro but the perpetrator would be easy to identify.

“An American assassin taking a pop at Castro would have been a major international incident and could indeed have led to a nuclear war given the protection Cuba was getting from the Soviet Union.”

Kiss of death

The 1960s, while being a time of intense rivalry and espionage between East and West, was also a decade of incredible glamour.

It was only inevitable then that they would combine – in deadly fashion. 

BNPS

The ‘Kiss of death’ lipstick gun was used by female operatives[/caption]

The one-shot weapon was seized by the US at a West Berlin checkpoint

At a West Berlin checkpoint in 1965, the US intercepted a KGB agent carrying what looked to be a normal tube of lipstick. But it was in fact a gun.

The device – which could be fitted with an actual tube of lipstick – was able to deliver a single 4.5mm shot.

It worked by pressing the barrel into the side of the target – delivering what has been dubbed a “kiss of death”. 

The Cold War device is now on display at the spy museum in Washington DC.

Sonic weapons

NSWC Crane's application file at the US Patent and Trademark office

A sonic weapon developed by the US Navy[/caption]

AFP

The US embassy in Havana, Cuba, where staff have reported mysterious cases of sickness and dizziness[/caption]

Sometimes, the origin of such spy-weapons is much less clear.

Philip explained: “I have seen research into sound weapons – where by sending out a wave a particular frequency, it vibrates the diaphragm of people’s bodies and makes them feel violently ill.”

In recent years, US diplomats stationed in embassies around the world have reported strange symptoms of dizziness, headaches, difficulty maintaining concentration and a painful sound in their ears.

The phenomenon was dubbed Havana syndrome, as it was there in Cuba’s capital that it was first reported in 2016.

Thousands of people have been affected by it, yet brain scans have shown no evidence of brain injuries.

It remains unclear exactly what – or who – is causing the bizarre symptoms.

But many suspect that these diplomats are the target of Russian “directed energy” weapons.

In April this year, a media investigation by The Insider uncovered evidence that connected members of Russian Military Intelligence Unit 29155 to the timings and locations of the incidents.

The investigation revealed that an officer within the unit had been rewarded for work on developing “non-lethal acoustic weapons”. 

Reuters

Chinese and Filipino vessels have frequently clashed in the South China Sea[/caption]

Reuters

Drones have proved deadly in conflicts such as Ukraine[/caption]

Nonetheless, Philip reminded that the origin remains unconfirmed and therefore claims that it is a hostile actor are “speculation”.

One victim, an FBI agent called Carrie, told CBS 60 Minutes about an experience she had in 2021. 

She said: “Bam, inside my right ear, it was like a dentist drilling on steroids.” 

Eventually, she said, she passed out and later had difficulty with her memory.

Although less powerful than what was potentially being used by the Russians, so-called sonic cannons and other acoustic devices have been used by militaries and police forces in the past, including one incident in which the Chinese military deployed them to disrupt Philippine government boats.

Dystopian dogs

Given how terrifying an invisible weapon may sound, you may think you’d prefer to face a foe you can actually see.

But you’d be wrong if this is what you’re up against because once you’ve seen this, it’s seen you – which means it’s already too late.

In May of this year, China revealed to the world a weapon that looks straight out of Black Mirror.

Footage of military drills with Cambodia shows a robot dog with an automatic rifle mounted on its back, leading an infantry unit into a building. 

Robot dogs are extremely versatile, able to cross almost any terrain with ease. 

And combined with AI and drones, they are another terrifying sign that warfare has entered a new era – impersonal and extremely deadly.

Man’s best friend indeed – so long as you’re on the right team.

AP

Members of the Chinese Army train with a robot dog, complete with machine gun attachment[/caption]

CCTV

China has been developing a terrifying weapon straight out of Black Mirror[/caption]

Getty

The dogs on display at an expo in Beijing in May[/caption]

Mobile killers

The images and footage that have emerged from Lebanon over the last couple of days shed some light on the dramatic events of the last few days.

In one piece of footage, people can be seen wandering around a supermarket like it was any other day when out of the blue an explosion rips out. 

Confused people look around, expecting a missile strike or suicide attack – when in fact the blast came from the pager of someone inside the store.

Just one day later, further blasts came this time from walkie-talkies owned by the terrorists. 

One video even shows an explosion happening at the funeral of someone who died in the attack from the day before.

Philip explained: “It’s a very sophisticated attack. It would have taken months and months of planning and a lot of preparatory activities to make sure that they could get it to work.”

Hezbollah had previously encouraged their members to stop using their mobile phones to avoid infiltration from Israeli and US spyware.

Israeli agents within the terrorist group would then have been able to give feedback about what devices they were switching to.

“It’s what’s officially known as a supply-chain attack,” said Philip.

Reuters

Yehia Ayyash, nicknamed The Engineer, was a Palestinian hero and Israel’s most-wanted man[/caption]

Reuters

The coffin of Yahya Ayyash is carried into the Palestine mosque[/caption]

Handout

Imad Mughniyeh, the elusive senior Hezbollah commander who was assassinated[/caption]

“You interrupt the supply chain to carry out modifications to different devices, and then put them back without anyone realizing that they’ve been interfered with.”

“And it happens more often than people think,” he added.

While in this case the devices were modified with explosives, interceptions like these are usually used to insert spyware and listening devices. 

Philip said: “You go into China, you go into North Korea, you go into Russia, your hardware will be tampered with either physically or electronically.”

If your device does get modified, it can then be used to spy on you – and you wouldn’t even know it’s switched on. 

“Anything that you do on your phone, on the connected device, I work on the principle that somebody’s listening to it somewhere. If you work on that principle, then you’ll stay safe,” he added.