The 4 August 2020 explosion at Beirut port killed more than 200 people, wounded thousands more and destroyed swathes of the capital.
Mail & Guardian pictures editor Paul Botes presents some of the most striking images
of 2020
The second blast sent an enormous orange fireball into the sky, immediately followed by a tornado-like shockwave that flattened the port and shattered windows across the city
Kicked out of Lebanese homes and denied entry into the Ethiopian consulate, Beirut’s Ethiopian house helpers are being abandoned on the streets
Ghosn made his first public appearance since his audacious December escape at a combative press conference in Beirut on Wednesday
The steady stream of coffins being shipped from Lebanon to Ethiopia, won’t be slowing any time soon
Their migration on a "road of death" is fuelled by endemic corruption, political dysfunction, unemployment and poverty.
By
South Beirut has endured a series of suicide bombings over the past two years in response to Hezbollah’s forceful intervention in Syria.
For filmmaker Mai Masri, the crumbling city of ÂBeirut, with its tortured past, is brimming with culture that continues to inspire artists.
Sectarian fault lines have intensified the political uncertainty and will decide the country’s fate. Jeremy Bowen reports.
The uprising in Syria is swiftly transforming into a civil war that could lay waste to the country and the fallout is bleeding outside its borders.
The discovery of gas reserves under the eastern Mediterranean could mean a huge windfall for Israel and Lebanon, if it doesn’t spark a new war.
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/ 25 January 2010
An Ethiopian Airlines plane with 90 people on board crashed into the Mediterranean sea shortly after taking off from Beirut international airport.
From nudist beach parties and wild bashes to gay clubs, gambling and showgirls, Beirut is rapidly earning a reputation as sin city of the Middle East.
Israeli plans to withdraw troops from part of a divided village on the Lebanese border are a ploy, Lebanon’s prime minister said on Monday.
Grappling with instability is nothing new to organisers, audiences and performers at cultural events in Lebanon.
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on a flying viisit to Beirut, said on Monday she wanted to back Lebanon’s democratic institutions.
Lebanon’s Parliament is set to elect army chief General Michel Suleiman as the country’s president on Sunday, filling a post left vacant for six months by a political crisis that threatened a new civil war. A Qatari-brokered deal last week between rival Lebanese leaders defused 18 months of political stalemate that erupted into fighting this month.
Lebanon’s Sunni Muslim leader Saad al-Hariri pledged on Tuesday there would be no political surrender to what he called a bid by Hezbollah and its Syrian and Iranian backers to impose their will on the nation by force. The Shi’ite Hezbollah group and its opposition allies have routed supporters of the Sunni-led government in Beirut.
Lebanon’s army stepped up patrols on Tuesday as part of a drive to restore order after a week of fighting between Hezbollah fighters and pro-government gunmen. Hezbollah, the Shi’ite Muslim movement backed by Iran and Syria, and its opposition allies have routed supporters of the Sunni-led government in Beirut and hills to the east.
Clashes resumed in Lebanon’s northern city of Tripoli on Monday and security sources said at least 36 people had been killed on Sunday in fighting between Hezbollah and its pro-government Druze opponents east of Beirut. A precarious calm prevailed in Beirut, where politicians prepared to meet Arab League mediators.
Lebanon was steeped in tension on Saturday after Hezbollah seized control of west Beirut in three days of deadly fighting with pro-government forces, triggering fears of all-out civil war. At least 18 people were killed in the violence that erupted on Wednesday and quickly escalated.
Lebanon’s Iranian-backed Hezbollah took control of the Muslim part of Beirut on Friday, tightening its grip on the city in a major blow to the United States-backed government. Security sources said at least 11 people had been killed and 30 wounded in three days of battles between pro-government gunmen and fighters loyal to Hezbollah.
The Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah said on Thursday the United States-supported Beirut government had declared war by targeting its communications network. Hezbollah launched a new street campaign on Wednesday, piling pressure on the government after it declared the network illegal.
Supporters of Lebanon’s Hezbollah blocked main roads in Beirut with burning barricades on Wednesday, paralysing the city and deepening the pro-Iranian group’s conflict with the United States-backed government. They set ablaze old cars and tyres to block the main road to Beirut’s international airport, where air traffic was suspended because of a strike
Lebanon’s presidential election was postponed to March 25 from Tuesday, the Parliament speaker said on Monday, the 16th delay of a vote derailed by the worst political crisis since the 1975 to 1990 civil war. The new election date set by speaker Nabih Berri is just four days before an Arab summit in Damascus.
Lebanon’s political crisis has turned into an economic nightmare for the vital tourist industry, hard hit by a slump in tourists from oil-rich Gulf states who have been told to avoid the troubled country. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain have advised their citizens not to travel to a country in the grip of its worst political crisis since the end of the civil war in 1990.
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/ 29 February 2008
The pro-Iranian Hezbollah group accused the United States on Friday of endangering regional stability by deploying a warship off Lebanon and vowed to defy what it called an act of military intimidation. Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, leads a Lebanese opposition locked in a 15-month-old power struggle with the Western-backed governing coalition.
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/ 14 February 2008
Three years after Rafik al-Hariri’s assassination, the crisis unleashed by his death opens ever deeper rifts in Lebanon and threatens the state and society the leader tried to rebuild after the civil war. The February 14 anniversary of al-Hariri’s death has become a symbol for divisions between the heirs to his legacy and their opponents.
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/ 13 February 2008
Hezbollah military commander Imad Moughniyah was killed by a car bomb in Damascus on Tuesday, the Lebanese group said, announcing the death of the man believed to be behind Western hostage taking in Lebanon in the 1980s. Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, accused Israel of killing Moughniyah, thought to be in his late 40s.
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/ 15 January 2008
At least three people were killed in an explosion that damaged a United States diplomatic car in Beirut on Tuesday and wounded a US passenger, security sources said. The sources said a total of 16 people were wounded in the explosion, which occurred in a Christian neighbourhood of Beirut. They said no US personnel were killed.
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/ 12 December 2007
A car bomb killed a Lebanese general in a Christian suburb overlooking Beirut on Wednesday, removing a leading contender to take over as army chief from General Michel Suleiman when he becomes president. The attack heightened tension in Lebanon where rival leaders are embroiled in a tussle over the Presidency.