U.S. military to deliver relief supplies to Beirut after explosion
The U.S. military on Thursday delivered the first of three planned planeloads of relief supplies including food, water and medicine to Lebanon to help victims of the deadly explosion in Beirut, according to the Pentagon.
A U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo plane from Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar delivered 11 pallets of food, water and medical supplies to Beirut on Thursday, according to a press release from U.S. Central Command. Two additional C-17s are scheduled to deliver more pallets of food and water within the next 24 hours.
The U.S. military is coordinating closely with the Lebanese Armed Forces to ensure the supplies do not fallen into the hands of the militant Hezbollah group, which wields considerable power in Lebanon, said Capt. Bill Urban, a spokesperson for U.S. Central Command. The LAF will receive the U.S. aid directly from U.S. military custody as soon as it arrives in Lebanon, he said.
"This will be a direct handover from the U.S. military to the LAF," Urban said. "We are confident in LAF’s ability to receive and distribute the aid to the people of Lebanon in greatest need of support. We have received LAF assurances and are confident that they will deliver as promised.”
Gen. Frank McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, informed his Lebanese counterpart, LAF Commander Gen. Joseph Aoun, of the shipment in a phone call, according to a Thursday press release.
McKenzie expressed condolences for the loss of life and devastation caused by the explosion, and U.S. willingness to continue to work with the LAF to help provide aid and assistance, according to the release.
There were initially conflicting reports about what caused the explosion, which killed 150 people and wounded 5,000. Officials initially blamed a major fire at a fireworks warehouse near the port. Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab later said the blast was caused by 2,750 metric tons of a volatile substance called ammonium nitrate, a type of agricultural fertilizer, which had been stored since 2014 at a warehouse in the port without adequate safety measures.
President Donald Trump added to the confusion on Tuesday when he said he met with "some of our great generals," who "just seem to feel" that it was an attack using "a bomb of some kind." He doubled down on the remarks on Wednesday, saying that "I've heard it both ways ... it could have been an accident, and it also could've been something very offensive."
However, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Wednesday that most officials believed it was an accident, adding that the U.S. would soon be sending humanitarian aid to Lebanon.
