Strange how American newsies are not the least bit interested in the story.
Interesting but still implies accidental and not military unless you want to say Russia sailed the ship in to blow it up.
It seems to me more likely that Beirut authorities ordered the ship next to the ammonium nitrate warehouse in case they had to offload it.
His theory is that there is another ship at the docks loaded with AN, that catches on fire and starts the fire / explosion?
Hmmm ... worth digging into.
Can someone interpret this? What the dickens does “these ships are off” mean? Were three ships sunk or were three ships missing or did three ships leave the port?
“”Three ships were berthed near explosion site, AIS of all these ships are off during last 14-16 hours, immediately or shortly after, the blast. General cargo ship MERO STAR, IMO 8321682, dwt 4110; general cargo ship RAOUF H, IMO 8325535, dwt 6343; Livestock carrier JOURI, IMO 9174775, GT 4033.””
New vid on this site I’ve not seen before from a very close position. Shows the first explosion and subsequent fire. Fireworks going off all over the place and a very hot fire inside the building. Goes on for a few seconds before the big blast.
There is a chunk missing from the wharf. Is it due to a section collapsing, or something else?
Filling in the mystery of why the ship went there, the retired master said the owner directed them to divert to that port.
Possibly it was a cargo delivery disguised as a confiscation of the cargo.
From another FReeper, NitroPril AN is designed to be used as an explosive rather than a true fertilizer.
It turns out that an Islamist group was starting up in 2012/2013/2014 and would have wanted to make a big splash - very common MO for terrorist groups. From an energy newsletter:
https://www.energyvoice.com/oilandgas/africa/243056/mozambique-claims-rebel-leaders-killed/
The Ahlu Sunna Wal Jamaa (ASWJ) group emerged in 2014 and has become increasingly active since 2017. ... Mozambique’s military forces (in 2020) have regained control of Macomia, a town in the northern Cabo Delgado Province around 200 km from the Total LNG construction site.
So we have a Russian arms dealer, supplying AN to an Islamist group that is starting up, to stop or slow a $15 billion LNG project that can free southern and East Africa from buying LNG and fuel from the open market.
Prices for LNG were sky high in 2012 and 2013.
Was this one of the ways that Islamist groups wage war on local pro-Western governments, by being supplied through back doors like in the old Cold War days?
Last question - why is a guy that took $1,000,000 from a Russian arms dealer that supplied Islamists still alive in the Middle East six years later?
Looking at a satellite image of the port before and after view it is clear the explosion was in one of the warehouses not in a ship.
I saw huge bags of fertilizer in a photo from a warehouse there in one news story.
Ammonium nitride is a great fertilizer. Why they did not confiscate the cargo and sold it out for fertilizer? They would make good money and solved the problem easily.
“Many believe that yesterday’s explosion in Beirut was caused by that ammonium nitrate cargo on board of RHOSUS.”
Could be.....but ammonium nitrate has been stored in large quantities (Approximately 2750 tons) in that warehouse since 2013. Right next to fireworks probably was not a good plan as it takes a small ignition force to blow. One little fire, and boom! And in this case...boom......and then much bigger boom.
https://time.com/5875922/fireworks-ammonium-nitrate-likely-fueled-beirut-explosion/
rwood
Except that Rhosus apparently sank in Beirut two years ago: Link