The scene of the Beirut explosion, one day after it occurred on August 4, 2020. (Credit: Hussein Malla, AP, via Times of Israel).
German media reported Friday that European intelligence sources have traced the 2750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate which exploded in Hanger 12 near Beirut Port to associates of the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah. The August 4 blast devastated the vibrant downtown district of Lebanon’s capital city. Although originally reported to be owned by a Russian businessman, further investigation determined that the ship carrying the combustible fertilizer was actually owned by a Cypriot businessman who had borrowed several million dollars in 2011 from an African bank known to launder money for Hezbollah. Charalambos Manoli employed elaborate measures to mask his ownership of the vessel Rhosus, registering it in Moldova and arranging a charter with the Russian proxy for the ill-fated voyage in 2012, which was allegedly headed to Mozambique to sell its cargo to an explosives manufacturer.
Instead, the Rhosus docked in Beirut port and was held there for a reported lack of “seaworthiness,” where its cargo was eventually offloaded and stored in the nearby Hanger 12 warehouse. The ship went unclaimed and eventually sunk. Although Manoli denies any wrongdoing, investigators have confirmed that he still owed more than a million dollars to the suspect African bank when he chartered the infamous transport in 2012. Analysts have documented Hezbollah’s practice of using its moneylenders to pressure debtors into doing favors for the terrorist group. It’s still unclear whether Manoli was involved in such as scheme, which would suggest that Beirut was the Rhosus’ true destination from the beginning, and that Hezbollah was his actual customer for the ammonium nitrate. Although the investigation has not yet concluded, the evidence in favor of such as scenario is mounting. Authorities in Mozambique never received a request from the Rhosus to dock in port, and Hezbollah subsequently showed a pattern of purchasing ammonium nitrate and deploying it for use in foreign terror attacks.
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For instance, Hezbollah purchased over 600 tons of ammonium nitrate from the Iranian al-Quds force in 2013 for several million dollars. After that, Israeli intelligence alerted authorities in Cyprus, the UK and Germany to Hezbollah operatives plotting attacks in their nations, which in each case led to the arrest of suspects with several tons of the bombmaking material in their possession. In the German case, the find was described as enough ammonium nitrate to “blow up a city.” European investigators have determined that the explosion in Beirut’s Hanger 12 was actually caused by 700-1000 tons of ammonium nitrate, whereas the Rhosus carried over 2700 tons of the material, implying that between 1700 and 2000 tons had “gone missing” from the warehouse since being stored there over five years ago. Indeed, a large hole in the wall of the warehouse and a missing door suggest that more than half of the material had in fact been removed, during which time the Israeli military published satellite photos of Hanger 12, labeling it as a munitions cache for Hezbollah.
The link between the missing ammonium nitrate and its possession in the hands of Hezbollah operatives across Europe is sure to preoccupy law enforcement investigators and foreign intelligence agencies for months. Thousands of Lebanese civilians have already made the connection, taking to the streets to denounce Hezbollah and its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in a public show of condemnation that would have been unthinkable only months ago. Now, it seems, the veneer of impunity has been removed from Hezbollah in Lebanon, as the fellow citizens it claims to protect from “Zionist aggressors” are turning against it for what appears to be a decade-long pattern of deception, negligence and recklessness which ultimately cost the lives of 180 people and caused injury to thousands more.
We ask our global family to join us in continued prayer for the people of Lebanon, as the injured continue to recover, the families of the dead continue to grieve, and the 300,000 homeless residents of Beirut continue to pick up the literal and figurative pieces of their lives in the wake of the explosion. We pray for the international community to flood the nation of Lebanon with much-needed aid for food, medicine and housing, as the explosion destroyed silos containing more than half of the small nation’s grain supply. We pray for an “open and effective door” for the Father to sent laborers into Lebanese harvest fields, and we pray that the One who casts light on the secret things of darkness would continue to expose the truth of the reasons for the blast to the world, and that radical Islamist groups such as Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps would continue to be discredited across the world, and especially in the eyes of their own people. Finally, as it is clear that Hezbollah would not have hesitated to use ammonium nitrate in attacks against Israeli citizens in the event of war, we pray for a continued hedge of protection around the people of Israel as they face the existential threats posed by the long arms of Iran and Turkey in an increasingly volatile region.
Maranatha.
