Was this an attack on Beirut?

Beirut is capital of Lebanon which has total population of around 1.5 million. Lebanon is ruled by an alliance which primarily consist of a political outfit Hezbollah which literally means ‘Party of Allah‘.

Hezbollah is a Shia Islamist political party and militant group based in Lebanon. Hezbollah’s paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese parliament. Throughout the 1980s Hezbollah engaged in increasingly sophisticated attacks against Israel and fought in Lebanon’s civil war (1975–90). During that time, Hezbollah allegedly engaged in terrorist attacks including kidnappings and car bombings, directed predominantly against Westerners. In 2009, while continuing to call for resistance to Israel as well as support for Iran, its changed the manifesto dropping calls for the establishment of an Islamic republic in Lebanon and joined the political process.

Hizbullah and Israel:

Hezbullah is also spelled as Hizbullah and it never ceased to have skirmish with Israel. The other party to this war is Syria. It would be interesting to know that India has equally good relations with Israel and Syria but that is besides the point. Israel on one side and Hezbullah and Syria on the other are constantly at war. This news excerpt is from last week of July:

Israeli forces on Monday exchanged fire with Hezbollah militants along the volatile Israeli-Lebanese frontier, as Israeli civilians living in the area were ordered to remain indoors amid the heaviest fighting between the bitter enemies in nearly a year.

The fighting occurred in an area known as Chebaa Farms, which was captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and is claimed by Lebanon. Residents of southern Lebanon near the border reported Israeli shelling that continued for more than an hour.

The fighting came as Israel was on heightened alert for a possible attack by Hezbollah, after an Israeli airstrike in Syria killed a Hezbollah militant last week. Israel has carried out dozens of airstrikes in Syria in recent years, targeting what it says are Iranian weapons shipments bound for Hezbollah in Lebanon

Few months back it was the Hizbollah which had orchestrated an attack on Israel with a barrage of missiles even while Israel was conducting general elections. On one occassion Prime Minister of Netanyahu had to leave an election rally mid way to take a place in bomb shelter. Hezbullah as an ally of Iran and is supported by it financially as well.

Devastation in Beirut:

On the port of Beirut 2,750 tonnes of Ammonium Nitrate was kept in the warehouse which was allegedly seized from a ship about 7 years ago. Ammonium Nitrate is often used by terrorists for making explosive devices.

On August 4th Beirut saw an explosion which measured as the equivalent of a 4.5 earthquake. It is said that the Ammonium accidentally caught fire. An orange coloured cloud billowed over the site after the explosion. Orange clouds of toxic nitrogen dioxide gas often accompany an explosion involving nitrates. The explosion took down half the port entirely and devastated half the city with this result:

• 300,000 Lebanese have become homeless
• $3 to 5 billion material lose
• Less than a month of grain in stocks
• Medical stockpiles destroyed, number of hospitals damaged
• 90% of hotels can no longer be used
• More than 100 dead, 4000 wounded
• Cost of damage from blast tops $3 billion.

Hundreds of people in Beirut have been reported missing by family members in the aftermath of Tuesday’s blast, raising fears that the death toll will far exceed the current estimate of at least 137. See:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDfrqhTlLrA/

Here is the catch. It is also alleged that this stockpile belonged to Hezbullah, a terrorist organisation active in Palestine and waging war with Israel. But nether the Hezbullah nor Israel has spoken a word about the explosion. It is a strange war in there are only victims but nobody wants to take the credit of attack? Or is this just an accident?

There have been many accidents invovling the odourless crystalline substance commonly used as a fertiliser around the world. some of these were:

• 1921: BASF chemical plant (Oppau, Germany); 561 killed
• 1942: Chemical plant (Tessendrio, Belgium); 189
• 1947: Freighter (Texas City, US); 581
• 1947: Freighter (Brest, France); 26
• 1995: Bomb attack (Oklahoma City, US); 168
• 2001: AZF chemical plant (Toulouse, France); 31
• 2004: Freight train collision (Ryongchon, North Korea); 161
• 2013: West fertiliser plant (Texas, US); 15
• 2015: Chemical warehouse (Tianjin, China); 165
• 2019: Chemical plant (Yancheng, China); 78
• Aug. 4, 2020: Portside warehouse (Beirut, Lebanon); 157 killed, 5000+ wounded.

Surprisingly Donald Trump, the motor mouth President of USA referred to this massive explosion in Lebanon’s capital city Beirut as a possible attack, and extended help to the country. Trump said that he had spoken to US military officials about the attack, who believed that it caused by a “bomb of some kind”. No evidence of any kind is presented to the world till date.

In previous months several installations inside Iran blow up. Thereafter in Libya, Turkey’s strategic assets are attacked by an unseen enemy. Now half of city of Iran’s ally is gone. Is this just a con-incidence? Or just bad Karma?

Sorry I cant accept that. With so much blood bath of innocent citizens who were only guilty by association or company, it does not bode well for any humane civilization to accept the responsibility. It is a war by all means, out there.