A Day Of Mourning In Lebanon

LEBANON

A Day of Mourning

Rescue workers on Wednesday morning continued to search for missing residents of the neighborhoods – many reduced to rubble – adjacent to twin blasts in central Beirut that killed at least 100 people and injured 3,000 more.

Red Cross workers scoured the deserted streets next to the port, calling out to residents who might be trapped and injured, the Washington Post reported.

The blasts Tuesday evening came from a warehouse in Beirut’s port area which housed massive quantities of explosive materials: The initial explosion ignited a fire and a second enveloped the skyline as a mushroom cloud of smoke billowed upward, and a shockwave moved out across the city.

The Lebanese Red Cross said that the city’s morgues would be accepting bodies directly as hospitals could no longer cope.

The country declared a national day of mourning.

Most officials believe so far that the blasts may have been an accident. Lebanese Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi said it appeared that stocks of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer also used in bombmaking, had ignited.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab linked the explosions to 2,700 tons of the dangerous chemical that had been stored at the port since 2014, despite warnings from port officials that the material was not safe. He said, “Those responsible will pay the price.”

The explosions coincide with mounting tensions between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah, which maintains a facility at the port and has long been accused by the US of using it to smuggle weapons into the country.

The incident follows a spate of mysterious blasts at Shiite militia weapon-storage sites in Iraq last year, which Israeli officials said it was responsible for, and a string of explosions at military sites and sensitive locations in Iran, which regional intelligence officials have said Israel, at least in part, was behind.

An Israeli official told the Washington Post that Israel had no role in the Beirut explosions.