BEIRUT — Lebanese authorities have
seized 20 tons of ammonium nitrate — the same chemical behind a deadly
explosion last year at Beirut's port — in the eastern Bekaa Valley, state media
reported on Saturday.
اضافة اعلان
Ammonium nitrate is an odorless crystalline
substance commonly used as a fertilizer that has been the cause of numerous
industrial explosions over the decades.
At least 214 people were killed and some
6,500 others wounded on August 4, 2020 when a shipment of the chemical
carelessly stocked at the Beirut port for years ignited and caused a massive
blast.
On Saturday, the National News Agency (NNA)
said security forces raided a fertilizer warehouse in the eastern Bekaa Valley,
considered a hub for smuggling operations between
Lebanon and Syria.
Authorities seized 20 tons of the dangerous
chemical stored inside a truck parked at the warehouse, the NNA said, adding
the material was transported to a "safe place".
Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi, who visited
the Bekaa Valley on Saturday, called on security forces to conduct a sweep of
the area.
"We must do our best to move these
materials to a safer place away from exposure to heat and sun" to avoid a
"catastrophe", the NNA quoted him as saying.
The company that owns the ammonium nitrate
said that the fertilizer was intended for agricultural use.
"One of our employees informed the
relevant authorities that we have ammonium nitrate, so they raided the
warehouses on Friday," one of the company heads told AFP on condition of
anonymity.
The name of the firm that owns the fertilizer
has not been made public pending investigations.
"We have been working in the feed and fertilizer
industry for 40 years," the company official added.
When combined with fuel oils, ammonium
nitrate creates a potent explosive widely used in the construction industry,
but also by insurgent groups for improvised explosives.
Lebanese authorities are still investigating
the circumstances in which hundreds of tons of the chemical ended up in the
Beirut port for years, before the monster explosion that levelled swathes of
the city.
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