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2020-08-04 Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Beirut goes BOOM!
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Posted by 3dc 2020-08-04 11:53|| || Front Page|| [11133 views ]  Top

#1 Alas, Babylon, anyone?
Posted by Rob Crawford 2020-08-04 12:22||   2020-08-04 12:22|| Front Page Top

#2 "At least we don't have to unload the ship now"
Posted by Frank G 2020-08-04 12:22||   2020-08-04 12:22|| Front Page Top

#3 Massive explosion shakes Lebanon's capital
Posted by Blackbeard Shereth7818 2020-08-04 12:25||   2020-08-04 12:25|| Front Page Top

#4 first part of video consistent with fireworks theory

the gigantic boom at the end was something different
Posted by lord garth 2020-08-04 12:25||   2020-08-04 12:25|| Front Page Top

#5 It's the Middle East where people have been killing people for millennia. That's what happens when there are too may competing religions.
Posted by jpal 2020-08-04 12:44||   2020-08-04 12:44|| Front Page Top

#6 At least 10 dead as massive explosion rocks Beirut destroying buildings and 'leaving people covered in blood and broken glass'
Posted by Skidmark 2020-08-04 12:54||   2020-08-04 12:54|| Front Page Top

#7  Alas, Babylon, anyone?

Loved the story.
Kept the paperback until pages started falling out.
Got a dachshund to warm the bed and took up river sailing.
Posted by Skidmark 2020-08-04 12:58||   2020-08-04 12:58|| Front Page Top

#8 Fireworks? There were big gunpowder/fireworks explosions in history, and no one described a mushroom cloud until the nuclear age.

(Except Pliny the Younger, and no one believed his description of Vesuvius exploding until the nuclear age.)
Posted by Rob Crawford 2020-08-04 13:08||   2020-08-04 13:08|| Front Page Top

#9 Maybe it started with fireworks, but that big boom? I find that hard to believe.
Posted by Rob Crawford 2020-08-04 13:10||   2020-08-04 13:10|| Front Page Top

#10 Stackin all em missiles was hard work! Time for coffee and a smoke.
BOOM
Oops.
Posted by Spot 2020-08-04 13:16||   2020-08-04 13:16|| Front Page Top

#11 I guess somebody in Hizballah had a canning scheme for importing munitions via commercial shipping.
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2020-08-04 13:18||   2020-08-04 13:18|| Front Page Top

#12 A shipload of "fireworks" for a country that can barely afford food and fuel, whose FM just resigned and a banking system and currency in collapse. Yeah, go on - Pull the other one
Posted by Frank G 2020-08-04 13:22||   2020-08-04 13:22|| Front Page Top

#13 This is a rapidly evolving story, so there will be more updates, Ik’m sure. Thank you, 3dc, for being on top of this for us, and for all the rest of you who’ve been posting updates.

The Jerusalem Post reports hundreds injured.

A massive explosion rocked Beirut on Tuesday and a tall plume of smoke could be seen from a distance. The explosion took place at the Beirut Port. According to Lebanese media, ambulances were transporting hundreds of injured people to local hospitals and dozens may have been killed in the incident.

Multiple videos from the area showed a plume of smoke rising from near the coastline and then a large blast and shockwave. Buildings throughout the area were damaged in the blast. The Daily Star newspaper, for example, released a video from its offices showing extensive damage.

There were at least 11 bodies found inside the port and contact was lost with a firefighting crew and a number of port employees, according to Lebanese reports. The Secretary-General of the Kataeb Party was critically injured in the incident, according to Al-Hadath.

According to the Daily Star, two explosions were reported at the port.

The source of the explosion was unclear. LBCI Lebanon News claimed that a fire had broken out at the port and then triggered an explosion of a nearby warehouse storing fireworks. According to the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Mayadeen news, the explosion occurred in a warehouse storing benzine, a flammable chemical. Sources from Hezbollah told OTV Lebanon that there was "no truth" to reports that the explosion was caused by an Israeli strike on Hezbollah weapons at the port. Israeli defense officials denied that Israel had any connection to the incident.
Posted by trailing wife 2020-08-04 13:23||   2020-08-04 13:23|| Front Page Top

#14 It looks like whatever was in the basement of the building next to the original fire went off. That was one serious explosion. The entire building was vaporized. Fireworks for weddings, huh?
Posted by Spot 2020-08-04 13:27||   2020-08-04 13:27|| Front Page Top

#15  but that big boom?

Decimated the grain elevator.
Could be dust.
Posted by Skidmark 2020-08-04 13:28||   2020-08-04 13:28|| Front Page Top

#16 Could be a grain dust explosion. I'd like to hear the opinion of someone with experience blowing stuff up.
Posted by Rob Crawford 2020-08-04 13:31||   2020-08-04 13:31|| Front Page Top

#17 Blast apparently caused by explosive materials seized from ship, stored at port

[IsraelTimes] After conflicting initial reports, Lebanese officials are now suggesting that the explosion was caused by highly explosive confiscated materials rather than fireworks.

Director-General of Lebanon Public Security Abbas Ibrahim says: “The storage area contained highly explosive materials confiscated years ago. To discuss fireworks is laughable.”

“I can’t predict what the investigation will reveal about the reasons for the explosion,” Ibrahim adds.

Local media reports the materials were seized off a ship and stored at a warehouse at the port.

“What we saw looked like Hiroshima or Nagasaki. It’s absolutely unprecedented in Lebanon’s history,” says Beirut governor Phillip Boulos.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun has called an emergency cabinet meeting
Posted by trailing wife 2020-08-04 14:00||   2020-08-04 14:00|| Front Page Top

#18 That last little boom reminded me a bit of a fuel-air explosion.

Confined space, volatile dust and/or aerosolized chemicals, not so much your ordinary bottle rockets or 'Brocade Blitz' finale set.
Posted by Mullah Richard 2020-08-04 14:02||   2020-08-04 14:02|| Front Page Top

#19 Nothing to worry yourselves about here. Just Muslims celebrating some ransom religious holiday.
Posted by jpal 2020-08-04 14:08||   2020-08-04 14:08|| Front Page Top

#20 The red in the explosion cloud would have a unique chemical signature which would say what it is. I don't have the expertise to make a guess besides strontium carbonate is in there somewhere if fireworks.
Posted by DarthVader 2020-08-04 14:09||   2020-08-04 14:09|| Front Page Top

#21 This is what happens when Lebanese fireworks factories don't follow strict Islamic work values.
Posted by jpal 2020-08-04 14:24||   2020-08-04 14:24|| Front Page Top

#22 Witnesses have stressed the sheer enormity of the blast, which was reportedly heard in Cyprus, and likened it to a 'nuclear bomb'.

Windows were blown out 15 miles away. Has a nuke been ruled out?
Posted by JohnQC 2020-08-04 14:37||   2020-08-04 14:37|| Front Page Top

#23 We'd have heard reports of radiation if it were nuclear. I have no doubt that was one of the first things that was checked -- likely Israel and the US already flew planes over with air sampling equipment.
Posted by Rob Crawford 2020-08-04 14:48||   2020-08-04 14:48|| Front Page Top

#24 Looks like Lebanese officials are sticking with the explanation of ship full of fireworks.

Iranian fireworks maybe?
Posted by gorb 2020-08-04 14:51||   2020-08-04 14:51|| Front Page Top

#25 Beirut blast: Dozens dead and thousands injured, health minister says
Posted by Skidmark 2020-08-04 15:16||   2020-08-04 15:16|| Front Page Top

#26 According to Major General Ibrahim, Lebanese Director of Intelligence, it's Sodium Nitrate that was left lying around from months ago when it was confiscated. The fireworks spread and set it off.

I'm personally reading through Ian Miles Cheong twitter feed for the videos. Some amazing stuff.
Posted by Charles 2020-08-04 15:31||   2020-08-04 15:31|| Front Page Top

#27 So it looks like it's in the same class as 1947's Texas City Blast.
Wikipedia on Texas City Blast of 1947
Posted by 3dc 2020-08-04 16:03||   2020-08-04 16:03|| Front Page Top

#28 so


ammonium nitrate from one warehouse and fuel oil from a warehouse on top of it

perhaps
Posted by lord garth 2020-08-04 16:57||   2020-08-04 16:57|| Front Page Top

#29 NaNO3 as an oxidizer.
Possibly a diesel mix, which would yield the black smoke.



Posted by Skidmark 2020-08-04 17:10||   2020-08-04 17:10|| Front Page Top

#30 Then there is this:

https://twitter.com/BeholdIsrael/status/1290734190045077504

Amir Tsarfati (@BeholdIsrael)
Experts that examined the Beirut explosion footage concluded that it was rocket fuel that exploded. That confirms that it was part of Hezbollah weapon percision program where they turned dumb rockets into smart guided ones.

https://twitter.com/BeholdIsrael/status/1290735542167048198


Amir Tsarfati (@BeholdIsrael)
The “Al Arabiya” online newspaper confirms that the blast in Beirut was in a storage of weapons and ammunition of Hezbollah!
Posted by newc 2020-08-04 17:30||   2020-08-04 17:30|| Front Page Top

#31  confirms that the blast in Beirut was in a storage of weapons and ammunition of Hezbollah!
But not, according to Hezbollah as reported by the Jerusalem Post in #13, caused an Israeli strike. File under Own petard, hoisted by. And elsewhere it was reported today that Hezbollah absconded with a large amount of the nearly bankrupt nation’s money —- tomorrow will be a bery interesting day for them, I fear.
Posted by trailing wife 2020-08-04 17:41||   2020-08-04 17:41|| Front Page Top

#32 If it were fireworks, would there not be colored blooms instead of entirely white concussion poppers?
Posted by swksvolFF 2020-08-04 18:37||   2020-08-04 18:37|| Front Page Top

#33 Got the feeling watching the shock wave condensation this was a legit explosion; looking at the on-site damage video this was not flashy but a Big Boomer Jar Jar.
Posted by swksvolFF 2020-08-04 18:43||   2020-08-04 18:43|| Front Page Top

#34 https://twitter.com/Intel_Sky/status/1290776919500378113?s=20

http://www.ipaustralia.com.au/applicant/orica-explosives-technology-pty-ltd/trademarks/354373/
Posted by newc 2020-08-04 18:44||   2020-08-04 18:44|| Front Page Top

#35 Bellingcat has some good details.

https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2020/08/04/what-just-blew-up-in-beirut/
Posted by Bangkok Billy 2020-08-04 19:44||   2020-08-04 19:44|| Front Page Top

#36 Fireworks? There were big gunpowder/fireworks explosions in history, and no one described a mushroom cloud until the nuclear age.

Well, I just read that the Halifax explosion produced one.
Posted by Thing From Snowy Mountain 2020-08-04 20:21||   2020-08-04 20:21|| Front Page Top

#37 If the men in video 6 were standing where they were when the 2nd explosion hit, I would hate to be them.
Posted by Whearong McCoy9589 2020-08-04 21:33||   2020-08-04 21:33|| Front Page Top

#38 Ammonium Nitrate storage in port area. Meant for what and where, anyone's guess.
Posted by Dron66046 2020-08-04 23:49||   2020-08-04 23:49|| Front Page Top

23:49 Dron66046
23:38 Vinegar Fillmore3021
23:33 Clem
23:31 Clem
23:26 Canuckistan sniper
22:29 Silentbrick
21:56 rjschwarz
21:33 Whearong McCoy9589
20:21 Thing From Snowy Mountain
19:52 Clem
19:44 Bangkok Billy
19:02 swksvolFF
18:49 TomAnon
18:44 swksvolFF
18:44 newc
18:43 swksvolFF
18:37 swksvolFF
18:34 Clem
18:20 Clem
18:12 Spusomp Grumble2077
18:11 KBK
17:41 trailing wife
17:30 newc
17:20 g(r)omgoru









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