HRW Report Implicates Top Lebanese Officials in Beirut Blast

Some senior Lebanese officials were aware of the risks of storing a highly explosive material at Beirut’s port before it exploded last year, killing dozens of people, a Human Rights Watch report concluded Tuesday.

The report was released a year after Lebanese officials blamed the Aug. 4 explosion on the detonation of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate that had been improperly stored for six years at the Port of Beirut in the heart of the city. The blast killed 214 people, injured thousands of others and destroy large swaths of the capital.  HRW called on the United Nations to launch an investigation into the explosion after its report concluded there was evidence that numerous Lebanese authorities, including caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab and state security head Tony Saliba, were criminally negligent under Lebanese law.