Beirut
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Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. As of 2007 it had an estimated population of slightly more than 1 million to 2.2 million as part of Greater Beirut, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region, which is: present-day Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Palestine and most of Turkey south-east of the middle Euphrates. It is the fifteenth-largest in the Arab world.
Beirut is an important regional seaport.
2020 Beirut blast
On 4 August 2020, a large amount of ammonium nitrate, stored at the port of the city, exploded. This caused at least 190 deaths, 3 missing, 6500 injuries, US$10–15 billion in property damage, and leaving an estimated 300,000 people homeless. Around 2750 tonnes of the substance (equivalent to around 1.1 kilotons of TNT) had been stored in a warehouse without proper safety measures for the previous six years, after having been confiscated by the Lebanese authorities from the abandoned ship MV Rhosus. The explosion was preceded by a fire in the same warehouse, but as of September 2020, the exact cause of the detonation is still under investigation.
A "confidential highly-informed Israeli source" told Richard Silverstein that Israel caused the massive explosion. According to the source, Israel targeted a Hezbollah weapons depot at the port and planned to destroy it with an explosive device, but "did not perform due diligence on their target" and allegedly did not know (or if they did know, they didn't care) that there were 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a next door warehouse. The explosion at the arms depot ignited the next door warehouse, causing the catastrophe that resulted.[1]
Former Likud MK Moshe Feiglinsaid about the explosion:
If it was us, and I hope it was us, then we should be proud of it, and with that we will create a balance of terror. By avoiding saying it's us – we are putting ourselves on the dark side of morality.
Feiglin went on to speculate that the explosion was no accident. He said: "You don't really believe that this was some messy fuel warehouse, yeah? Do you understand that this hell was supposed to fall on us as a rain of missiles?! I have some experience with explosives. The largest explosion I took part in was 2.5 tons of TNT." He added: "What we saw yesterday at the Port of Beirut was much bigger. The destructive effect (without the radiation) was like a nuclear bomb." In an interview with local radio, the former Likud MK said he hoped Israel was responsible for the blast, and that he was allowed to "rejoice" that it was Beirut and not Tel Aviv.[2]
Event
| Event |
|---|
| 1983 Beirut barracks bombings |
Groups Headquartered Here
| Group | Start | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Hezbollah | 1985 | Political Islamic party, and army fighting many wars in the Middle East, linked to possible CIA drug trafficking. |
| Lebanon | Religiously diverse Middle Eastern country. |
Related Document
| Title | Type | Publication date | Author(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| File:Horror in Beirut by Philip Giraldi.pdf | article | 11 August 2020 | Philip Giraldi | Was it an accident or a warning? |
