Tipsheet

Hezbollah Hoarded Fertilizer That Blew Up Beirut, Planned to Use it Against Israel in 'Nuclear' Style Attack

Katie Pavlich
Katie Pavlich  |  August 05, 2020 2:00 PM

Yesterday a massive explosion devastated Beirut, killing at least 100 and injuring thousands. Lebanese officials said the blast came from a 2750 ton stockpile of ammonium nitrate that was stored in the port. 

Hezbollah, the Iran backed terrorist organization that has taken over Lebanon, has a history of stockpiling the chemical in different European locations. 

Hezbollah kept three metric tons of ammonium nitrate, the explosive thought to be behind the mega blast in Beirut this week, in a storehouse in London, until MI5 and the London Metropolitan Police found it in 2015.

The Lebanese terrorist group also stored hundreds of kilograms of ammonium nitrate in southern Germany, which were uncovered earlier this year.

The Iran-backed terrorists kept the explosive in thousands of ice packs in four properties in northwest London, according to a report in The Telegraph last year. The ice pack deception tactic was used in Germany, as well.

Further, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah once explained how it could be used to blow up ports in Israel.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah threatened in the past to destroy Israel by causing a massive explosion in the port of Haifa using ammonia tanks that he said would be like a “nuclear” explosion. In addition Hezbollah allegedly sought to acquire ammonium nitrate via Syria since 2009 and tried to infiltrate the agriculture ministry in Lebanon to do so, according to leaked diplomatic cables.

In February 16, 2016 Nasrallah also said that ammonia is stored in Haifa and that there are 15,000 tonnes of gas Haifa and that explosions there might cause the deaths of tens of thousands of people. “the expert added that this is exactly like a nuclear bomb. In other words Lebanon has a nuclear bomb. This is not an exaggeration.” Nasrallah laughs as he says this in the video, noting that Hezbollah refrained from striking the ammonia in the 2006 war. 

Nasrallah told his audience that with several missiles his terror group could set off the ammonia with the same impact of a nuclear weapon. He said he had consulted experts and that 800,000 people would be affects and tens of thousands killed. In February 2017 he made another speech mentioning ammonia stored in Haifa.

Meanwhile, a former CIA operative isn't buying that ammonium nitrate was the only thing behind the massive blast. 

Robert Baer, a former CIA operative with extensive experience in the Middle East, said videos of Tuesday's blast showed that while ammonium nitrate may have been present in the warehouse, he does not believe it was responsible for the massive explosion that ensued.

Baer said he thinks that there were military munitions and propellants present. He speculated it could have been a weapons cache, but it's unclear who it belongs to.

"It was clearly a military explosive," he said. "It was not fertilizer like ammonium nitrate. I'm quite sure of that."

"You look at that orange ball (of fire), and it's clearly, like I said, a military explosive."

Baer noted that white powder seen in the videos of the incident before the major blast are likely an indicator that ammonium nitrate was present and burning. He also noticed a lot of munitions going off ahead of the larger explosion.

Israeli intelligence and other analysis shows Hezbollah stores weapons in crowded, civilian populations in Beirut.

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Hezbollah has a significant arsenal of explosives, missiles, ammunition and more stored in populated areas across the country, including in Beirut.

A July report by the ALMA Research and Education Center found that the group has at least 28 missile launching sites, command and control infrastructure, missile assembly sites, rocket fuel storage sites and missile bunkers next to high schools, clinics, hospitals, golf clubs and soccer fields as well as the Iranian Embassy and the Lebanese Ministry of Defense.