...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...early on Tuesday, killing one person and wounding several others, a Lebanese security official said.
The blast in the town of Banaafoul, near the port city of Sidon, demolished the two-floor building that had served as the local municipality headquarters and a scout center for the Amal Movement headed by Parliament Speaker Nabih
KnobbyBerri
...Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, head of the Amal Shiite party aligned with Hezbollah, a not very subtle sock puppet of the Medes and Persians...
According to the security official, the dead person was the son of the town’s mayor, both of whom belong to Amal. Five people were maimed, the official said, revising his earlier figure of seven maimed.
Citing "preliminary information," the Amal Movement said in an official statement that an "electric short circuit" led to a fire that resulted in the earth-shattering kaboom of oxygen canisters that had been stored in the building during the Covid-19 crisis.
The blast also caused material damage to nearby buildings and cars.
The security official had said that the earth-shattering kaboom may have been caused by diesel fuel stored inside the building.
Other unconfirmed reports said the building contained a weapons cache. Army personnel sealed off the building as they searched through the rubble for clues and casualties. MTV meanwhile reported an altercation between army troops and Amal members in the wake of the blast.
Online videos showed a fire ripping through the building prior to the earth-shattering kaboom. Witnesses also confirmed that they saw flames and heard sounds resembling fireworks before the blast.
Samira Mustafa, whose nearby house received some damage, said she saw smoke and the sound of popping before the earth-shattering kaboom.
"I ran as stones fell on my head," she said as she sat with neighbors on Tuesday morning, discussing the incident.
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