Defense Secretary Mark Esper says that “most believe” a massive explosion in Beirut, Lebanon was “an accident” — an apparent break with President Donald Trump, who suggested it was an attack.
During a discussion at the Aspen Security Forum on Wednesday, Esper said the U.S. government was “still getting information on what happened” in the capital of Lebanon.
“We’re reaching out to the Lebanese government, have reached out. We’re positioning ourselves to provide them whatever assistance we can, humanitarian aid, medical supplies, you name it, to assist the people of Lebanon,” he added.
During a press conference on Tuesday, Trump was referred to the explosion as a “terrible attack.”
“It would seem like it based on the explosion,” Trump said when a reporter asked him to clarify if he was labeling the incident an attack — instead of an accident.
He explained why he came to that assessment, “I’ve met with some of our great generals, and they just seem to feel that it was not a — some kind of manufacturing explosion type of event. This was a — seems to be according to them, they would know better than I would, but they seem to think it was an attack. It was a bomb of some kind.”
Watch Trump’s comments below:
President Trump on whether #LebanonExplosion was an attack and not an accident: "I met with some of our great generals and they just seemed to feel that it was. This was not some kind of a manufacturing explosion type of event…they seem to think it was an attack." pic.twitter.com/fQDQ8oHc4A
— CSPAN (@cspan) August 4, 2020
The explosion killed at least 135 people and injured thousands, and the cause is still under investigation.
However, security experts raised doubts about Trump’s suggestion that the explosion was an attack.
Additionally, Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab said there were roughly 2,750 tons of highly explosive material stored in the warehouse that exploded on Tuesday.