Disaster Fireworks Warehouse Explosion in Beirut - Spoiler: It wasn't Fireworks it was 2,500+ tons of High-Explosive Ammonium Nitrate

Article (Archive)

Beirut, Lebanon (CNN)

A large explosion rocked the Lebanese capital Beirut on Tuesday, damaging buildings and offices around the city.
The source of the explosion was a major fire at a warehouse for firecrackers near the port in Beirut, the state-run National News Agency reported.
A red cloud hung over the city in the wake of the blast as firefighting teams rushed to the scene to try to put out the fire.
Local news reported multiple people were wounded in the incident.
This is a breaking story, more to follow.

Twitter thread: https://mobile.twitter.com/tobiaschneider/status/1290670226934243329

Attaching all of the videos I grabbed from this guys twitter just now as well, here's one of them:

Here are some links to other posts in the thread with more content, you may need to go to the posts directly to see the media:

Spoiler: Two videos

Couple more angles of the explosions, seems everyone in Beirut holds their phone vertically. Buckle up for a very delayed boom in the second video.

Spoiler: Another angle, 'Allahu Ackbar'

Here's a different angle. Notice how the guys recording it say "Allahu Akbar".

EDIT: Direct embed

Spoiler: Slow Motion explosion

Found this slowmo of the explosion in which you can see the fireball and airblast more clearly

Spoiler: Two more videos

(edits: trying to get the spacing of text/video right; links to tweets)
I think this is just a slowed down version of this that I grabbed from twitter (https://twitter.com/saadmohseni/status/1290678176574779395):















Also this for another, closer angle (https://twitter.com/realdavereilly/status/1290690743217119235):

Spoiler: Lebanese Public Security: Not fireworks, High-Explosive Material

View attachment 1495099

And you retards thought putting it all in one place is a good idea?

Spoiler: Sodium Nitrate, PM's Wife and Daughter slightly injured in explosions, ISRAEL UNINVOLVED WE SWEAR

It was explosive sodium nitrate holy shit
View attachment 1495106

https://twitter.com/ragipsoylu/status/1290698269421600770

Israel denies involvement, Hezbollah says it wasn't their stuff, PM's wife and daughter injured
View attachment 1495109

https://twitter.com/ragipsoylu/status/1290703557797089281

Spoiler: Aftermath videos/photos

What remains of the dock:

Spoiler: Italy Radiation Spike

There’s a radiation spike picked up near Italy/scicily. Let me try to archive this or take a screenshot

http://archive.md/Nefcf

View attachment 1495413

Spoiler: 2 Minute Compilation Video

I know that there are several vids on here but here's a 2+ minute concatenation of multiple angles and some security camera footage of blast sites.

Spoiler: 2,700 TONS of Ammonia

View attachment 1495562
Translation: Preliminary security information talks about 2,700 tons of confiscated ammonia in the port exploded during the process of welding a small hole to prevent theft

 

[TowinKarz]

For anyone cheering this on, you should probably realize that Lebanon is already barely a country and was teetering on the brink of total collapse even before this happened. If this escalates, we could be seeing a Lebanon Civil War 3.0.

Is a kleptocracy something that should be spared a Civil War? That's a legit question too. It's going to go to pot, but it sounds like those who are going to get the rope deserve it.

A policeman was killed during the clashes, a spokesman said. A policeman at the scene said the officer died when he fell into an elevator shaft in a nearby building after being chased by protesters.

It's true that things like this play out in pairs, first as tragedy, second as comedy....

 

[soy_king]

Is a kleptocracy something that should be spared a Civil War? That's a legit question too. It's going to go to pot, but it sounds like those who are going to get the rope deserve it.

In a just world the people responsible should get the rope, but if this is the final nail in the coffin for any stability in the country, we're looking at a protracted civil war and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, which includes the 1 million Syrian refugees currently in the country. The fact that a civil war didn't erupt during the Arab Spring was a miracle, but I don't know if they could dodge another bullet. Maybe I'm being overly dramatic, but this could get really bad really fast.

 

[Snekposter]

It did, but it left the central government's power essentially nonexistent. The Syrians had a military presence for about fifteen years after the end of the war, the Israelis occupied the south for ten years, and Hezbollah became a state within a state, with its own military and social services system. The political system is essentially divided along sectarian and Pro/Anti-Syrian lines, and for several years didn't have a government because the mostly anti-Syrian Sunnis were in conflict with the mostly Pro-Syrian Christians and Shia. There were major protests for the past two years as social services began to get worse, and combined with the influx of 1 million Syrian refugees, their infrastructure is straining under the wait.

You should also note that the civil war erupted in 1975 in the first place because the mass influx of Palestinian refugees, particularly armed PLO members, effectively skewed the balance of power against the then-majority Christians and precipitated a fifteen year long sectarian war.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like all you're saying is that for about two decades its been nothing but the threat of foreign troops in the borders or on the borders that has kept everyone from going back at it, so no actual resolution to the war. Also, FUCK THE PLO.

 

[soy_king]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like all you're saying is that for about two decades its been nothing but the threat of foreign troops in the borders or on the borders that has kept everyone from going back at it, so no actual resolution to the war. Also, FUCK THE PLO.

Kinda. It's a lot more complicated than that, but it's more likely that if it did come to a war, the Sunnis would probably lose, both because they are a minority in the country compared to the Christians and Shia (who're only allies because they fear the Sunnis), and because they lack the funding and military organization of their enemies, especially Hezbollah.

 

[LetThemEatCake]

Hezbollah is so closely entwined with the Iranian regime (to the point of marriage arranged between family of high level members of each regime) it will be interesting to see how things go if push comes to shove and factional fighting kicks off again. Iran will back them to maintain their hold there if things go back to civil war status. The country is riven with sectarianism. As someone above poined out, things wen to shit when the country received a ton of Palestinian 'refugees' prior to 1975, which upended the demographics overnight and led to the Christian Maronite faction which previously ruled the counry being unseated and ended with an Islamic terrorist faction in government.


Anyone who wants to read about how Lebanon was in eighties during the civil war should read PJ O'Rourke's Holidays In Hell, which contains a fairly gonzo account of trip there in autumn 1984, shortly before the risk of being kidnapped and held for years by one faction or another became too high to travel there. There's one point where he's in his hotel and a hears 'a truly horrendous explosion' occur. He says it was no use looking outside to find out what had happened as everything was already in shreds. That was my first impression of the photos after this week's blast - it simply looked like Beirut in the 80s. I remember when the country was a byword for endless war, kidnappings, and terror, and looked like a literal bombsite.

Anyway, Lebanon right now has all the indicators of a return to armed violence, including a large diaspora which can and will fund wars back home.

 

[TowinKarz]

You kids who weren't, well, kids in the 80's missed out on a time when Beirut and Bombing were tautological, and next-door neighbor Gadaffi was the kind of figure Saddam would be for the 90's, shorthand for "Middle Eastern Dictator Who Indiscriminately Chucks Grenades to Convince you He's Too Crazy to Try and Topple" which only makes it sadder to see them get kicked in the face when they try to get off the mat.... Lebanon was a chic place to visit in the 60's, then, like Iran, it went to literal Hell from hardline Islamofascist insurgency and dictatorship.

 

[KingCoelacanth]

For anyone cheering this on, you should probably realize that Lebanon is already barely a country and was teetering on the brink of total collapse even before this happened. If this escalates, we could be seeing a Lebanon Civil War 3.0.

People in the west don't care. Getting rid of Qaddafi devastated Libya, but whats important is that we got rid of him. The Syrian civil war was a total mess, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.
Its not about improving the country or helping the people, its about regime change. Even if the average person in Lebanon is completely worse off afterwords and the country is in ruins, as long as the west gets its regime change then its a victory.

 

[heathercho]

Don't know if this was mentioned yet, but a police van ran over a protester earlier in the night.

Spoiler: Marking as NSFW

bubxnNXqNnDamvGi.mp4

That was 100% the fault of the protester. You can't be a fucking tard.

For anyone cheering this on, you should probably realize that Lebanon is already barely a country and was teetering on the brink of total collapse even before this happened. If this escalates, we could be seeing a Lebanon Civil War 3.0.

Yeah, tbh, what annoys me is seeing people cheer it on at the same time as admonishing nigs and antifa. Like the root cause is not the same whatsoever and Lebanon have a legit reason AND they aren't needlessly ruining shit, but this isn't the way.
It maddening because Antifa see Lebanon's reason on par with them, which is just fucking outrageous, but you can't have civil wars. It doesn't fix shit.

 

[Getting tard comed]

Youd be surprised how much can go wrong due to neglect.

No, I wouldn't be surprised. Neglect also leaves a lot of openings for various factions to exploit. I'm not happy that Lebanon is going to shit, but Macron's speedy trip there promising to fix shit is suspect. Nobody does anything at that level out of the goodness of their heart.

Then again, I read this and while I don't believe any of it 100% it certainly raised some doubts on the official story for me. Could just be me being autistic though.

 

[DeadFish]

No, I wouldn't be surprised. Neglect also leaves a lot of openings for various factions to exploit. I'm not happy that Lebanon is going to shit, but Macron's speedy trip there promising to fix shit is suspect. Nobody does anything at that level out of the goodness of their heart.

Then again, I read this and while I don't believe any of it 100% it certainly raised some doubts on the official story for me. Could just be me being autistic though.

Even in america a place that's wealthy and supposedly well organized stuff still happens. I think in Alabama or some place near by people were getting Ill. No one could figure out. It turned out the area used be a military chemical weapons dump and was forgotten about .

Even in the US army there are many many store rooms forgotten about containing weapons, vehicles and rations and other stuff. That's world over

That's when an organization is well funded and supposedly well disciplined.

Now you talking about Beirut. A place that isnt a well oiled machine and is unstable.

Things going get lost in the mail I guarantee it.

 

[Cypher]

You kids who weren't, well, kids in the 80's missed out on a time when Beirut and Bombing were tautological, and next-door neighbor Gadaffi was the kind of figure Saddam would be for the 90's, shorthand for "Middle Eastern Dictator Who Indiscriminately Chucks Grenades to Convince you He's Too Crazy to Try and Topple" which only makes it sadder to see them get kicked in the face when they try to get off the mat.... Lebanon was a chic place to visit in the 60's, then, like Iran, it went to literal Hell from hardline Islamofascist insurgency and dictatorship.

lol this fucking meme again.

Islamist sectarianism and radicalism was the result of countries going to hell because of problems like Demographic displacement, economic disparity, elitism, or foreign interest whoring that people ignore while jerking off to Middle Eastern women in skirts. The people who accelerated the war, PLO, were more ideologically radical than religiously like Hamas. Even the Christian Maronite factions like Kataeb or LF were more batshit insane. They were the ones that committed a massacre that became the genesis of Hezbollah existing in the first place.

Lebanon is and has always been a giant fucking meme that has a retarded system of government, it’s going to keep imploding because there is no ethnic majority in the area and the government is too fucking idiotic to placate everyone, not because of some religious towelhead.

 

[soy_king]

lol this fucking meme again.

Islamist sectarianism and radicalism was the result of countries going to hell because of problems like Demographic displacement, economic disparity, elitism, or foreign interest whoring that people ignore while jerking off to Middle Eastern women in skirts. The people who accelerated the war, PLO, were more ideologically radical than religiously like Hamas. Even the Christian Maronite factions like Kataeb or LF were more batshit insane. They were the ones that committed a massacre that became the genesis of Hezbollah existing in the first place.

Lebanon is and has always been a giant fucking meme that has a retarded system of government, it’s going to keep imploding because there is no ethnic majority in the area and the government is too fucking idiotic to placate everyone, not because of some religious towelhead.

Hezbollah came about through Iranian funding and inspiration from Khomeinis religious revolution. Lebanons problems came from demographic changes combined with the destabilizing influence of Soviet funded foreign forces settling in the country. It will never be a viable country as long as its people are more loyal to their tribes than the nation, and since the tribal loyalties go back for thousands of years versus the seventy years of the country's existence, I dont see that happening.

 

[Cypher]

Hezbollah came about through Iranian funding and inspiration from Khomeinis religious revolution. Lebanons problems came from demographic changes combined with the destabilizing influence of Soviet funded foreign forces settling in the country. It will never be a viable country as long as its people are more loyal to their tribes than the nation, and since the tribal loyalties go back for thousands of years versus the seventy years of the country's existence, I dont see that happening.

There IS no nation. Lebanon is a fucking meme, it's a joke of a bunch of jumbled up ethnicities that hate each other predicated on centuries old divisions. The Phoenicianism shit is a literal LARP from people who want Macron to come back and colonize their women. Literally all of these nations in the region were drawn on a map by Mark Sykes and Francois Picot back in 1916.

 

[soy_king]

There IS no nation. Lebanon is a fucking meme, it's a joke. The Phoenicianism shit is a literal LARP from people who want Macron to come back and colonize their women. Literally all of these nations in the region were drawn on a map by Mark Sykes and Francois Picot back in 1916.

Nations are created by the people living in them and their choices to identify with each other over their tribal identities. Turkey, Iran, and Israel are actual nation states with a sense of collective unity in the region, despite their borders being artificially drawn.

 

[TowinKarz]

Nations are created by the people living in them and their choices to identify with each other over their tribal identities. Turkey, Iran, and Israel are actual nation states with a sense of collective unity in the region, despite their borders being artificially drawn.

The US Civil War was possible because at the time, a persons' regional identity overrode the National one. Even during the War of 1812 and the Revolution, there were pockets of the country that didn't want to go to war because they saw it as "The interests of kooks in Boston dragging Georgians who have no issue with the Crown into war"

The Civil War is arguably what made the nation a NATION, as it set the standard that states (I.E. trbes) are subservient to a fairly elected Federal power to keep everything running smoothly, to step in and end tribal warfare so you don't get these countries where large pieces of the populace are fighting each other on the local level. You saw this happen during the Civil Rights movement with southern states attempting to block Federal decrees and some citizens targeting others for religious-war-tier executions, but ultimately the Feds stepped in and told everyone to accept it or go to jail. That was really the last gasp of internal ethnic blocs being able to threaten the status quo of the Nation.

THis modern day ANTIFA shit is going nowhere because nobody feels so loyal to Portland or IDPOL to take up arms , they see themselves as Americans or more broadly "working class average people" who just want to keep living their lives, and won't join a mob promising things that would "sell" in places like the Mid East (Join us and kill the infidel across the street before he does it to you!)


ANd yes, the haphazard way the borders of the Mid East were drawn is a big reason why it's always under tension, Africa too, the borders were drawn by diplomats in Europe around what was convenient for them and often put two tribes that hated each other in the same box , that's why Rawanda slaughtered itself in the 90s'.

 

[Super-Chevy454]

You kids who weren't, well, kids in the 80's missed out on a time when Beirut and Bombing were tautological, and next-door neighbor Gadaffi was the kind of figure Saddam would be for the 90's, shorthand for "Middle Eastern Dictator Who Indiscriminately Chucks Grenades to Convince you He's Too Crazy to Try and Topple" which only makes it sadder to see them get kicked in the face when they try to get off the mat.... Lebanon was a chic place to visit in the 60's, then, like Iran, it went to literal Hell from hardline Islamofascist insurgency and dictatorship.

Indeed, Lebanon was once known as the Switzerland of the Middle East and Beirut was the Paris of the Middle East. I saw a couple of vintage clips filmed before the civil war.

 

[jje100010001]

Interesting assertions from WELT regarding Hezbollah, the ammonium nitrate, and the explosion:

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.welt.de%2Fpolitik%2Fausland%2Farticle213884822%2FLibanon-Die-explosive-Spur-fuehrt-zur-Hisbollah.html

Original article: https://www.welt.de/politik/ausland...-Die-explosive-Spur-fuehrt-zur-Hisbollah.html

PM Hassan Diab was also reported to have known about the fertilizer, and was supposed to have visited in June, but cancelled the visit for reasons unknown.

 

[RodgerDodger]

Just for some follow up info. We’ve referenced the Texas City disaster of 1947 quite a lot as a direct comparison to what happened in Beiruit. One of my favorite “Technical Disaster Porn” channels, Plainly Difficult, just put out a nice fairly short, and nicely detailed look at the Texas City explosion. It’s worth a watch.

 

[Cyclonus]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/09/10/middleeast/beirut-port-fire-intl/index.html

I don't fucking believe it. There's another huge fire in the exact same fucking port a month later. People are fleeing in case there's another explosion. How fucking incompetent are the Lebanese authorities?

 

[Thomas Talus]

How fucking incompetent are the Lebanese authorities?

Yes.