Started 7 years ago. A small country situated near to the south-western region of Russia named Georgia. Here near to the black sea, a city is situated named Batumi. On September 2013, a ship named Rhosus departed from Batumi by a Russian businessman Igor Grechushkin. The ship contained 2750
ton Ammonium Nitrate. This consignment was booked by a company called Fabrica De Explosives Mocambique in Mozambique. From the name itself is days that the company manufactures explosives. Igor received a total of 1 million USD from the company. The ship started from Batumi to Mozambique but did not reach Mozambique. The main reason behind this is that the ship is 30-40 years old which is weak. Second, Igor did not pay the crew members of the ship their payment, which caused problem for them during the journey. The ship in between halted near Greece for fueling. And then it was supposed to reach Africa. But on the way in Suez Canal, the ship had to pay a tax which the crew members did not have. They called Igor and he clearly said that he is not having money with him. He instead suggested the crew to take the ship to Beirut and take some heavy machinery consignment on the ship. Whatever money will come can be utilized for the forward journey. With this instruction from Igor, the ship reached Beirut Port on November 2013. However, since the ship was very weak, it was not in a condition to carry such heavy machinery. And subsequently the officials of Beirut port seized the ship and along with the captain, 9 more crew members were arrested. After few days, some crew members were released but then Captain along with 3 more crew members were detained and were assured of the release after clearance of ship parking charges in the port. Captain being a Russian reached out to Russian government for help. He reached out to Lebanian based Russian Embassy. He narrated the whole story. The embassy in turn showed a rough behavior saying that “Do you want Putin to help you escape?”. The Captain even wrote letters to Putin but no action on that front. Ultimately, the captain sold some fuel from the ship, hired an advocate and in 2014, Lebanian court with mercy granted him and his crew members bail. Crew members went to their home but the ship with Ammonium Nitrate stood there in the Lebanian port. The Ammonium Nitrate were stored in hanger 12 in Beirut port. From August 2014 to August 2020, the products were stored there itself.
Custom Department and Security Department of Beirut port were aware of the explosive chemicals. Then the Director General of Beirut port Mr Badri Daher wrote to Washington Post. In his letter he stated that he reached out to Lebanian judiciary many times about the storage of the explosive chemicals but no response from their end. He clearly stated in one of his letters in 2017 that the chemicals are quite explosive and are not kept with proper arrangement. One day, that would surely be a disaster to the port and nearby places. The General Manager of Beirut port Mr Hasan Koraytem also wrote and told the same story to New York Times. The judiciary only stated that one day the chemicals will be auctioned. According to reports, the unethical storage of the chemicals was getting decomposed with days at the port and more dangerous also. The strange part is citizens of Beirut were not at all aware that they are staying in such an environment of bombs stored near them.
Hezbollah Connection with the chemicals.
Hezbollah founded in 1985 is an Islamist political party and militant group based in Lebanon. Sources say that they have high interest in the chemicals on the port because they usually use that for making explosives. Also, the terror attack in Germany, Britain and Bulgaria, explosives were made up of ammonium nitrate which were carried out by Hezbollah. Sources say that Hezbollah use Beirut port for transportation of arms and ammunitions to different parts of the world. And because of that in the year 2019, America applied sanction in some of the higher officials of Hezbollah.
Facts about Ammonium Nitrate and its reaction
Usually ammonium nitrate is stable till 40 degree Celsius but whenever it exceeds that, it explodes. There is a history of such incidents earlier as well. In the year 1947, a ship was carrying 2300 ton of ammonium nitrate to Texas, USA and the ship caught fire, and eventually the chemicals too caught fire. And there were a 15 feet high tides seen on the sea. Somewhere around 400 people were killed in this incident. And subsequently certain guidelines were made with respect to this chemical. But then also explosions used to happen. In the year 2004, an Iranian goods train carrying these chemicals was exploded which lead to the end of an entire village. In the year 2015, there was an explosion in China where 104 fire brigade officials died because of the fire. Some 800-ton ammonium nitrate was involved in that incident. But in Beirut port the explosives used were 2750 ton. Just imagine how much loss the country would have encountered.
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