BEIRUT EXPLOSION
Blast comes amid pandemic, financial crisis, sectarian issues.
A massive blast rocked the Lebanese capital, killing over 70 people and injuring 4,000. It was a devastating blow to a nation battling the coronavirus, a financial crisis and sectarian divisions.
BEIRUT — The massive explosion that rumbled across Beirut on Tuesday, killing more than 70 people and injuring nearly 4,000, was a devastating blow to a nation battling the coronavirus, a financial crisis, sectarian divisions and renewed tensions with Israel.
The blast at a warehouse leveled a swath of the city’s port and shook buildings and shattered windows miles away. An orange-black plume of smoke towered over the city as ambulances wailed and the injured wandered dazed and bloodied among fallen bodies and battered cars in scenes reminiscent of Lebanon’s civil war of the 1970s and 1980s.
The National News Agency reported that the blast, which hit with the force of about a magnitude 3.5 earthquake, came from a site along the docks where highly explosive materials, including about 2,700 tons of ammonia nitrate, were stored after they were confiscated years ago. Ammonia nitrate is used in fertilizers and bombs. A smaller explosion occurred moments earlier during a fire at a storage facility, witnesses said.
Shock waves overturned cars on highways. Ships were damaged on the waterfront. People were trapped amid toppled buildings and rubble. Doctors were overwhelmed; hospitals quickly filled up. Many wounded were turned away. Doors were knocked from their hinges across town, and Beirut’s mayor, Marwan Abboud, broke into tears as he toured the debris, saying, “Beirut is a devastated city.”
Embattled Prime Minister Hassan Diab said that the day’s events “will not pass without accountability” and that officials “will pay the price for this disaster.”
“That’s a promise to the martyrs and wounded,” he said.
Beirut was declared a disaster area. The bedlam brought back shadows of Lebanon’s civil war, which left Beirut neighborhoods in ruins. But this time, the chaos was compounded by an economy on the brink of collapse, as well as a spike in coronavirus cases that has left the country’s hospital system dangerously overstretched. For months, the city, which has watched the lira lose nearly 85% of its value against the dollar, seemed to be slowly imploding amid the weight of its burdens.
The explosion was not far from the site where in 2005 former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated in a bomb attack that exposed sectarian fissures and the pervasive meddling in Lebanon’s affairs by Iran and Syria. A special international tribunal is expected this week to hand down verdicts on four members of militant group Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and is one of the main parties in the Lebanon’s power-sharing government.
If Tuesday’s explosion was not an accident, it could reignite sectarian passions and probably jeopardize a government under increasing strain even as the death toll was expected to climb and Wednesday was declared a national day of mourning.
The blast also came amid deepening tensions between Israel and Hezbollah on Lebanon’s southern border. Residents reported hearing planes overhead just before the blast, fueling rumors of an attack, though Israeli military overflights are common. An Israeli government official said Israel “had nothing to do” with the blast. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter with the news media.
U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo sent his “deepest condolences” to the people of Beirut and said the United States is closely monitoring the situation. “Our team in Beirut has reported to me the extensive damage to a city and a people that I hold dear, an additional challenge in a time of already deep crisis,” Pompeo said in a statement.
President Trump, who offered no specifics, told reporters in Washington that it “looks like a terrible attack,” saying, “I met with some of our great generals, and they just seem to feel that it was.”
Video taken by residents showed a fire raging at the port, sending up a giant column of smoke, illuminated by flashes of what appeared to be fireworks. Local TV stations reported that a fireworks warehouse was involved. The fire then appeared to spread to a nearby building, triggering a more massive explosion, sending up a mushroom cloud and generating a shock wave and a noxious cloud.
One of Israel’s top bomb experts, Boaz Hayoun, said fireworks could have been a factor setting off the bigger blast. “Before the big explosion ... in the center of the fire, you can see sparks, you can hear sounds like popcorn and you can hear whistles,” said Hayoun, owner of Tamar Group.
Outside a hospital, Omar Kinno sat on the pavement, holding back tears. Kinno, a Syrian, said one of his sisters was killed when the blast rocked their apartment near the port, and another sister’s neck was broken. His injured mother and father were taken to a hospital, but he didn’t know which, and he was making calls trying to track them down.
“I have no idea what happened to my parents. I am totally lost,” he said.
Another man said the carnage reminded him of decades ago.
“It was a real horror show. I haven’t seen anything like that since the days of the [civil] war,” Marwan Ramadan said.