Beirut Explosions: The Truth Behind | PQShorts
#Beirut #politics #news
On August 4th, 2020, Lebanon’s capital, Beirut saw two devastating explosions in its port which caused at least 220 deaths, 6,000 injuries, $10–15 billion in property damage, and left an estimated 300,000 people homeless. It was speculated to be caused by the huge amount of ammonium nitrate confiscated by Lebanese government and then stored in an abandoned ship, MV Rhosus, without necessary precautions. One of the most powerful non-nuclear explosions, its impact was felt across Israel, turkey, Syria and parts of Europe.
As of 8 August, the director-general of Lebanon's customs authority Badri Daher, and 20 other people were arrested, with investigations still ongoing.
A lot of shock has been flying around both on and off the Internet as President Trump let out a surprise – it must have been a bomb – comment when referring to the massive explosion in Beirut on Tuesday.
As mentioned, this ship was storing explosive material ammonium nitrate without proper security. The question remains – whose explosive material was this?
It is well known that Hezbollah has tens or even hundreds of storehouses with weapons and explosive material around the country, especially in Beirut. The material that blew up may in fact belong to Hezbollah, which would be the real reason why they actually agreed that Israel had nothing to do with the blast.
On a different note, ammonium nitrate is commonly used fertilizer and industrial explosive.
Since the chemical does not burn on its own, it is believed the explosion in Beirut could have been a result of poor maintenance practices or contamination, even fireworks may have triggered the explosion.
Given the availability and every day presence of ammonium nitrate, we must ask, how far are we from becoming the next Beirut?
Sources:
1) https://theprint.in/theprint-essentia...
2) https://israelunwired.com/beirut-blast/
3) https://syrianperspective.com/2020/08...
4) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Be...
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