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Beirut Blast Blamed on Chemical Cargo Removed From Ship in 2014
[gCaptain] The volatile chemical that Lebanese authorities blame for Tuesday’s lethal blast in Beirut had been lying in storage at the city’s port for six years in spite of warnings from customs officials about its hazards, documents show. Evidently, customs officials in Beirut do not have much authority to enforce violations. The ammonium nitrate arrived as cargo on the ship Rhosus in 2014, according to two letters issued by the director general of Lebanese Customs. For reasons that are unclear, dockworkers unloaded the chemical, which can be used to make fertilizers and explosives, and put it into storage. Customs officials later asked judicial authorities at least twice to issue orders for the ammonium nitrate to be confiscated or re-exported, according to the letters. In one of the letters, dated May 3, 2016, the director general at that time, Shafik Merhe, warned of “the extreme danger” from storing the chemical in a warehouse “in these unsuitable weather conditions.” The material posed a risk to the staff and the port, he said. The buck is passed here. Lebanese broadcaster LBCI reported that the Rhosus had been scheduled to sail with its cargo from Beirut six years ago but stayed at the port due to a mechanical failure. Workers welding a door on Tuesday started a fire that ignited the chemicals, LBCI said, citing people who attended a Supreme Council of Defense briefing after the blast. The explosion killed at least 100 people and wounded thousands more. Authorities blamed a quantity of ammonium nitrate equivalent to 1,800 tons of TNT that had been stored at the port, without saying what triggered the blast. Prime Minister Hassan Diab on Tuesday described the storage of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate at the port as “unacceptable” and said that those responsible would be held accountable. Cat's out of the bag, Hassan.
Port authorities unloaded the ammonium nitrate and stored it in a rundown port warehouse with cracks in its walls, and the ship sank sometime later because of damage, the officials said. The warehouse started to exude a strange odor, which led security forces to launch a 2019 investigation that concluded that the "dangerous" chemicals needed to be removed from the premises. The agency also noted the walls of the warehouse were unsound, urging the port authorities to repair them. It was not until this week that workers were dispatched and began repair works, in what might have possibly triggered the blast. Related: Rhosus: 2020-08-06 Russian fella Igor Grechushkin connection to Beirut Warehouse #12 blast Rhosus: 2020-08-06 Day 3: Lebanon in ‘state of emergency’ as Beirut blast death toll climbs to 135 Posted by: Alaska Paul 2020-08-07 |
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