...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...to "make sure something like this never happens again".
On a tour of a demolished Beirut neighbourhood, US Undersecretary for Political Affairs David Hale said Lebanon needed "economic and fiscal reforms, an end to dysfunctional governance and to empty promises".
The explosion at Beirut port injured 6,000 people and forced around 300,000 out of their homes in the city, which was already sinking deep into financial crisis. Some 30-40 people remain missing.
Authorities have blamed the Aug. 4 blast on a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate stored for years at the port without safety measures.
"The FBI will soon join Lebanese and international Sherlocks at the invitation of the Lebanese to help answer questions about the circumstances that led up to this explosion," Hale said on Thursday.
Lebanese President Michel Aoun
...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah...
has said the investigation will look into whether the cause was negligence, an accident or possibly "external interference".
Aoun has asked La Belle France for satellite imagery for the probe. A UK Royal Navy vessel was also deployed to Beirut to survey the site.
An Israeli seismological expert said on Thursday the earth-shattering kaboom was preceded by a series of blasts, the last of which was combustion of fireworks.