Earlier today, there was a horrific explosion in the port of Beirut that ripped through the city and killed more than seventy people as well as injuring at least 4,000:

Lebanon’s health ministry said that at least 78 people had died and 4,000 suffered injuries in the explosions and fire that shook Beirut on Tuesday.

The numbers climbed steadily through the day, and with the wounded still streaming into hospitals and the search for missing people underway, they were likely to go higher still.

The blast appears to have been caused when a fire set off a huge store of ammonium nitrate that had been confiscated from a ship and kept at the port for the last six years. Such a huge quantity of explosive material was a disaster waiting to happen, and the citizens of Beirut have suffered a devastating blow as a result. The Lebanese prime minister has vowed that there will be accountability for those responsible for keeping this material there. Initial reports and video show that the city’s port has been wrecked, and it is not known at this time how long it will take to repair and resume operations there.

Lebanon was already suffering from a severe economic and financial crisis exacerbated by U.S. sanctions on Iran and Syria, and the country was also coping with a serious coronavirus outbreak. Lebanon’s hospitals were already under strain because of the pandemic, and now they are being overwhelmed by the huge number of people injured in the blast. The port explosion affected the entire city and was felt as far away as Cyprus. The damage from the blast was massive and far-reaching:

Many residents lost their homes, especially in the majority Christian eastern part of the city closest to the blast. In the neighborhood of Gemmayze, once a vibrant nightlife district, buildings collapsed, cars were overturned and the streets were blocked by piles of masonry and twisted metal.

The damage was spread across a wide arc. Windows were blown out and check-in counters were damaged at Beirut’s airport, several miles from the explosion. Doors were blown open and windows rattled at the U.S. Embassy, more than 6 miles away.

It is one of the most horrible accidents to befall any city, and both Beirut and Lebanon will need a major international relief effort to help them recover from its effects. The people of Lebanon need our support and aid. In addition to locating and aiding any American citizens caught up in the blast, the U.S. should be offering whatever assistance it can to aid in the delivery of essential goods and other humanitarian supplies. We should offer this help because it is the decent and humane thing to do.

For his part, the president has chosen this moment to make dangerous and irresponsible comments by suggesting that the accidental explosion was an attack:

This is so stupid and irresponsible. There is nothing that suggests it was anything more than a horrific accident. As if people in Lebanon didn’t have enough to contend with https://t.co/xhcldLunr8

— Daniel Larison (@DanielLarison) August 4, 2020

There is no evidence to support this conclusion at this time, and everything suggests that this was a disastrous accident that happened because of criminal negligence. It helps no one, least of all the people of Lebanon, for anyone in our government to be floating unfounded and inflammatory theories about this explosion. There will be many opportunists and ideologues that will want to exploit this terrible event for their own purposes, and they must not be allowed to use this disaster to promote more conflict and confusion.