The Syrian embassy in Lebanon announced that 43 Syrians were among the dead in the devastating bombing that struck the port of Beirut last Tuesday, and the wife of the Netherlands’s ambassador was killed from her wounds.
The embassy said in a statement today, Saturday, that the death toll from the Syrians is not final, and it did not clarify whether these were among the total number of 158 dead so far, in addition to 21 missing.
It added that it had provided all facilities to transport the bodies of some of the dead Syrians to their homes, and helped bury others in Lebanon.
The French Press Agency quoted a Syrian survivor from the blast as saying that he was accompanied by 13 of his countrymen on board a ship shipping wheat from Ukraine six months ago, and that he was planning with his colleagues to return to his country.
According to estimates by the Lebanese authorities, there are about 1.5 million Syrians in the country, and figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees indicate that one million Syrians are registered with it in Lebanon. Note that many of these Syrians reside in refugee camps after leaving their country because of the war.
On the other hand, the Dutch Foreign Ministry said that the ambassador's wife in Lebanon died today, Saturday, of serious wounds sustained by the explosion of hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate.
The ministry added that the ambassador's wife was injured when she was standing next to her husband in their home in the Lebanese capital, and the explosion had caused great damage to the embassy.
So far, it has been announced that an Australian and an Egyptian were killed, and that among the injured were Frenchmen and members of the UN force, some from Bangladesh.