Lebanese President Michel Aoun said on Friday that the terrible explosions at the port of Beirut were due "either to negligence or to external intervention", citing the hypothesis "of a missile". "It is possible that this was caused by negligence or by external action, with a missile or a bomb," said the head of state in an interview with journalists, three days after the disaster that killed more than 150 people.
Aerial images to clarify the situation
This is the first time a Lebanese official has raised an outside lead in the blast affair, with authorities so far claiming it was caused by a fire at a massive ammonium nitrate depot. The 85-year-old head of state added that he "personally" asked French President Emmanuel Macron, whom he received at the presidential palace on Thursday, "to provide us with aerial images so that we can determine whether there was planes in (air) space or missiles "at the time of the explosion on Tuesday.
"If these images are not available among the French, we will ask other countries," added Michel Aoun, violently criticized by the population who denounce the incompetence of the authorities and corruption. Besides ammonium nitrate, an explosive substance, the military prosecutor spoke of the presence of "highly flammable materials and slow wicks" according to a statement.