Beirut, Lebanon’s port area was rocked by a massive explosion today killing 78, injuring thousands more reported Lebanon authorities. Lebanon’s Prime Minister Hassan Diab confirmed that a fire in a warehouse containing 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate exploded creating a tremor the equivalent of a 3.5 earthquake on the Richter Scale, leveling building in Beirut’s harbor area, creating toxic red smoke. Authorities had knows since 2014 about the warehouse full of the same chemical that was used by Timothy McVeigh to level the Arthur P. Murrah Federal building April 19, 1988, killing 188, men, women and children, injuring 680 more. McVeigh was put to death by lethal injection June 11, 2001 in the Federal Correctional Facility in Terre Haute, Ind. Why 2,700 tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate was stored for years in a Beirut warehouse is anyone’s guess.
Asked about the explosion today at a coronavirus briefing, 74-year-old President Donald Trump said the explosion could have been a bomb attack. “I’ve met with some of our great generals and they seem to feel that it was—this was not some kind of manufacturing explosion type of event—this was a—seems to be, according to them the would know better than I would—but they seem to think it was an attack,” Trump said. “It was a bomb of some kind,” Trump said, yet it’s too early to know for sure whether it was deliberately detonated. When the U.S. Marine Barracks was hit with a truck bomb Oct. 23, 1982 in Beirut, the explosive used was PETN [Pentaerythritol tetranitrate], a favorite explosive of Mideast terrorists. By the time the dust settled, 241 U.S. Marines, and 66 other personnel were killed. Today’s explosion doesn’t not have the typical signature of past terrorist bombings.
Prime Minister Diab vowed to get to the bottom of what happened, not certain why the warehouse contained 2,700 tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate. Whether the explosion was deliberately detonated by an unidentified terror group remains to be seen. “Looks like a terrible attack,” Trump said, contradicting Lebanese officials unwilling to speculate yet on what caused the explosion. Trump said American officials were “confident” that the Beirut explosion was “an attack and not and accident.” “Well it would seem like it, based on the explosion, adding the generals he spoke with “seem to feel that it was,” Trump said, not knowing for sure. U.S. officials urged any Beirut embassy personnel to avoid going outside because of possible toxic exposure. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirmed that at least one citizen was killed in the blast.
Iranian-backed, Beirut-based Hezbollah militia, run by 59-year-old Hassan Nasrallah, offered no explanation for the blast. While not said by Prime Minister Diab, the warehouse could have been maintained by Hezbollah. Lebanon authorities had no explanation why 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate was warehoused in the port area. Ammonium nitrate is a common explosive used in the mining industry, or a common component of agricultural fertilizer. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres offered condolences, admitting that at least 48 U.N. staff were injured, including 27 dependents. Neither U.N. nor Lebanon officials were willing to go out on a limb to blame the explosion on a terror attack. What’s known for sure is that is that 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate, an agricultural fertilizer, was detonated by what looks like a fire. Whether it was deliberately detonated is anyone’s guess.
University of Melbourne chemical engineer Gabriel da Silva confirmed that ammonium nitrate is a common industrial chemical used mainly in agricultural fertilizer. Da Sliva confirmed that it needs extraordinary circumstances to detonate ammonium nitrate, typically combining oil and fire to become highly explosive. “I think that’s what’s happened here,” da Silva confirmed. If you look at the smoke that came from the blast, it’s this kind of blood red color. That’s because of the nitrogen oxide air pollutants in it,” making no mention of a deliberately detonated bomb. When explosions take place in the Middle East, it’s easy to jump to conclusions. But if da Silva offers any insights, it looks like a spontaneous explosion created by an accidental warehouse fire, something not yet confirmed by Lebanese authorities. Beirut officials asked why highly explosive materials were warehoused in the port.
Judging by the chemicals used in the Beirut port blast, they don’t have the same signature as typical explosives used by Mideast terrorists. While it’s true America’s homegrown terrorist Timothy McVeigh used ammonium nitrate to truck bomb in the Oklahoma City in 1988, it’s not the PETN used to blow up in the U.S. Marine Barracks in 1983. “Let me begin by sending America’s deepest sympathies to the people of Lebanon, where report indicate that many people were killed hundreds more were very badly wounded in a large explosion in Beirut,” Trump said. Lebanese officials admitted that they knew that 2,700 pounds of ammonium nitrate were warehoused in the Beirut’s port. Jumping to conclusions about bombings doesn’t answer the question whether the warehouse was deliberately detonated. What’s known now is that a deadly blast happened in a Beirut warehouse—that’s all.
