Beirut hit by massive explosion wounding several and damaging buildings

a reply to: paraphi

U.S. Military intelligence says the explosion(s) was an attack on Beirut. Not an accident.

a reply to: bastion

Anhydrite mines, not limestone. The caves are under my home town.

Edit to add I think you mean carbonic not carbolic acid.

Images of the blast crater and damaged grain silos. Apparently 80-90% of wheat imports come through the port. Going to be a humanitarian issue very soon.

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originally posted by: RexKramerPRT
Images of the blast crater and damaged grain silos. Apparently 80-90% of wheat imports come through the port. Going to be a humanitarian issue very soon.

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A huge blast fails to topple two grain silos.

But one jet takes down a 100-story Steel and Concrete skyscraper.

a reply to: carewemust

Look how much grain spilled out. Maybe the towers wouldn’t have collapsed had they been filled with wheat.

a reply to: RexKramerPRT

It doesnt mean 90% is stored there. Why would you want to paint it more gloomy than it is?
It was beautiful. They will talk about it for generations as the No.1 event in their boring ant-lives.
The Chinese one is still higher on the scale of epicness IMO.

ETA: Dude says:

The silos hold up to 120,000 mt in grain (~20% annual imports)

And they'll recover some of it IMO. Maybe most of it. It will be full of concrete but at least it's not burning

a reply to: PapagiorgioCZ

I didn’t say it was stored there.

originally posted by: carewemust
a reply to: paraphi

U.S. Military intelligence says the explosion(s) was an attack on Beirut. Not an accident.

I thought they were denying that claim? The Pentagon are telling journalists to ask the White House as they're not making a statement either way onthe cause of the blast so far. 'A bomb of some kind' and 'some kind of attack' doesn't sound like the kind of laguage intel or military would use.

Also no other countries intelligence is suggesting such a thing took place and no country apart from a terror state would cause that ammount of deliberate civillian death in one go.

There is a chance it could have been an initial bombing by Hizbulah/Hizbalah in retaliation to recent US-Lebannon negotiations but it wouldn't make much sense as the US released Hizbulash's main terror financier in June as part of the negotiations: uk.reuters.com... US intelligence is huge in the area and I've never seen them ever make a statement so 'woolly'.

They're usually short, sharp, declarative statements saying 'this group or this country conducted the attack' - not 'a huge ecplosion of fertiliser bomb making material fells like a bomb, we present no evidence and claim no awareness of who could be behind it'.

originally posted by: RexKramerPRT
a reply to: bastion

Anhydrite mines, not limestone. The caves are under my home town.

I stand corrected. It was around a decade ago when I heard the tale. Hydro-flouric or Sulphuric acid rather than carbolic would have been the reaction in that case I think (never been any good at chemistry).

Satellite images

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a reply to: bastion

Here's President Trump telling the press that his top military guys told him Beirut was attacked.


Tues Eve Press Q&A: twitter.com...

Maybe he wasn't supposed to "spill the beans" like that. Obviously the President didn't think it was a big deal, considering how many people in that region are killed by violence every week. Almost as many as are killed here in the U.S..

a reply to: carewemust
That could have easily just been Trump's (or his advisors) initial assumption when told there was a major explosion (or possible attack) in Beirut.

originally posted by: carewemust
a reply to: bastion

Here's President Trump telling the press that his top military guys told him Beirut was attacked.


Tues Eve Press Q&A: twitter.com...

Maybe he wasn't supposed to "spill the beans" like that. Obviously the President didn't think it was a big deal, considering how many people in that region are killed by violence every week. Almost as many as are killed here in the U.S..

I've seen it cheers though only because of your prior posts (the claim has gained no coverage or traction in the UK and would have gone unnoticed otherwise so thanks for that).

I can definitely buy Trump 'spilling beans' and accidentally leaking intel as he's got a track record for it and there's no chance his claims had been cleared or vetted by intel/PR as if it had the statement would be of a much higher quality. Trump isn't very wise when it comes to international relationships but I find it very hard to believe he'd be dumb enough to think a major explosion in the biggest tinderbox between US-Israeli-Iran conflict is a nothingburger or risk throwing Israel under the bus like that (Iran would naturally assume it was a US-Israeli effort and launch a major co-ordinated attack on Israel through their terror proxies in retaliation.

The statement seems more of a post-panic room briefing where intel lay out what they know to be fact, what they know to be false, what the evidence indicates transpired but more evidence/intel is required and what the intel indicates didn't transpire but more info is required to rule it out (they're the four classes of intelligence that US and UK intel services use and what Rumsfelt's famous 'known knowns, known unknowns, things that we know we know, things that we know we don't know and thing we don't know we don't know' speech.

He does get caught up in the moment and let intel slip (rarely) as part of his salesman spiel but I can't see him messing up so badly he gifts Iran the propaganda of their dreams. That''s something Biden would do.

Then again it could all be a bit of preplanned smoke and mirrors to add to the confusion and geneeral uneasyness in Iran over whether the recent explosions there are due to US-Israeli sabotage or pure incompetence by the Iranian regime.

Explosion came from incorrect handling and storing of ammonia nitrate.

Nothing to do with fireworks

The aftermath is not so beautiful. How did they manage to record the ringing in their ears?
They need mobile hospitals not just rescue teams IMO

a reply to: bastion

Why couldn't he just offer his condolences and deepest sympathies and say that the US is prepared to help in any way possible and then say that they will wait until all the evidence has been gathered and analysed before commenting on the cause of this horrific explosion.

It really isn't hard, even for a simpleton like myself!

I suspect Biden would be unable to understand and process the details of any intel briefing and thus would be incapable of such a slip.

As for the recent explosions in Iran; there has been a sort of wall of silence surrounding them here in the UK.....which suggests to me a certain level of involvement or at least awareness of who is responsible etc.

Seems very suspicious though to store Nitrate and huge amounts of it at the Port and next to fireworks storage depot.

Accident waiting to happen or deliberate act of terrorism disguised as an accident?

This is an image of the explosion site before today. The following link is to google maps to explore the area:

goo.gl...

Just mulling moving forwards, regardless of whether this was an accident or planned.
I noticed somebody said Akrotiri picked the explosion up in Cypress, as would have most military organisations.
Wouldn't this be the perfect opportunity for Western governments with a vested interest in the region to establish some military presence under the guise of humanitarian aid, thus securing a foothold and presence there?
Just thinking out loud
Rainbows
Jane

PS....I don't believe for one minute there were fireworks before the big explosion...


PPS...there we have it...UK are sending "Emergency Medical staff and search and rescue teams"....so it begins.

a reply to: angelchemuel

Most governments send disaster relief teams to disasters. Russia are sending 5 planes of supplies and personnel.

www.aa.com.tr...

a reply to: RexKramerPRT
Yes, I get that.....but just thinking a little beyond that

Rainbows
Jane