Huge Blast in Beirut leaves over 70 dead, hundreds injured and devastation

international | miscellaneous | news report Tuesday August 04, 2020 23:34 by 1 of indy

There are reports that a huge blast rocked Beirut today (Tues) with videos online showing a massive blast. It is reported that over 70 people have been killed with hundreds injured. Streets in surrounding areas have been destroyed and the blast was so powerful cars quite far back from the blast were flipped over.

The initial reports are suggesting the explosion occurred at a warehouse where dangerous chemicals and fireworks were stored but this could easily be a strategy to set the narrative. Given the scale of the blast one would have to wonder are fireworks really that popular and besides the main explosion indicates something far more massive.

In the last year Lebanon has undergone a huge financial crisis and the country has been plunged into poverty and the value of the currency has plumented with the result of a huge surge in unemployment and poverty. The country is completely broke. Thus the recent political development have to be therefore linked to today's explosion in some way.

The explosion was so powerful and cause so much damage that the Beirut Governor Marwan Abboud called the explosion a “national disaster akin to Hiroshima,” where the first nuclear bomb was dropped 75 years ago this week.

It has also been reported that the secretary-general of Lebanon's Christian Kataeb Party was caught in the blast and died sometime later.

Already the Israeli IDF have denied any responsibility but given the history in Lebanon, it is hard to take anything they say seriously.

Lebanon has gone financially broke in the last year and there are suggestions that this may be the result of a long process to engineer such an outcome and both the hand of Israel and the US may be involved. The express aim being to punish Lebanon for allowing Hezbollah to operate inside the country.

There is some hint of this given that the head of Human Rights Watch (HRW) was extremely quick to blame Hezbollah for the blasts and reveals that HRW are simply a tool of the US State Department. The HRW chief Kenneth Roth quickly rolled back on the accusation.

Update:
More coverage at https://www.rt.com/news/497098-beirut-blast-aftermath-videos/