the death count climbing quickly tonight
in lebanon the country's health minister
confirming more than 70 people have died
thousands more injured after an
explosion rocked the capital city
of beirut earlier today a massive
stockpile of highly explosive material
is believed to have set off the
warehouse fire
that caused the blast the u.s embassy in
beirut warning
there are reports of toxic gases
released in the explosion
so all in the area should stay indoors
and wear masks
if available president trump calling an
attack a short time ago
it would seem like it based on the
explosion i met with
some of our great generals and they just
seemed to feel that it was this was not
a some kind of a 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 a
attack it was a bomb of some kind yes
here now general jack keane chairman of
the institute for the study of war and a
fox news senior strategic
analyst general keene great of you to be
here with us tonight as we learn
new details about what happened there
the president
detailing an attack of some kind a bomb
of some kind
said he was briefed by the generals what
can you add to
what we're learning about that attack
tonight
well the thing is it's so horrific
i mean my god uh everybody in beirut
was impacted by the attack that that's
actually extraordinary you know for a
considerably large city like that as you
noted in the introduction
hundreds have been killed and thousands
you know have been wounded and so many
buildings in the area
you know have been impacted by it and
when you look at the actual scene of it
it looks like a massive physical
destruction
near the port area i think at this point
we're so early in this sandra i don't
think we truly know
lebanese generals are saying they don't
believe
it was any form of terrorism they think
it was some kind of a fire that led
to the explosion of thousands listen
thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate
which would create something like that
the president obviously has considerably
more information in all of us
in terms of what is possible but this
much we know
when we think about what do the radicals
do
in reference you know to what their
targets are they're usually very
symbolic targets
uh targets that associate with people
as a as opposed to a warehouse and what
am i talking about
i mean terminals railroad stations
airplane terminals
buses trains bridges uh
obviously the horrific bombings that
took place uh by using airplanes
uh in the united states that's normally
that target
and and also sandra we have horrible
memories here
you know going back 40 years when um
the radicals blew up on marine barracks
241
killed uh in lebanon our embassy
and then when we moved to the annex they
blew that up as well
so yes we we have very painful memories
of what took place but i think
we just don't have enough facts and
forensic evidence to
to point at something in terms of
whether it's domestic terrorism
or radical terrorism or maybe
an accident the lebanon prime minister
is saying those responsible
will pay the price you do look at the
increasing tension
between israel and hezbollah and
you look big picture after this attack
knowing what we know now and what the
u.s role will be to step in and how we
can help
general keane well obviously
the united states has huge capacity to
assist
and if if the people of lebanon need our
citizens we'll be there for them
and we have considerable capacity
in europe we don't have to come from the
united states to do it we
we have that capabilities very close to
lebanon very close to the middle east so
we absolutely i'm confident
without talking to anybody that our
ambassador is reaching out
and offering all the assistance that the
united states can possibly
provide to help these people the only
thing that
is happening domestically i mean they're
going through covid
uh the hospital infrastructure not
surprising is struggling with here
their economy is in a tank there is a
trial that's taken place
dealing with the assassination of their
prime minister harari
and the culmination of that trial is
coming up the end of this week
is what people believe in terms of a
verdict dealing with the assassination
the assassinators of of the prime
minister
that is the only thing i can look at
domestically
that may have uh a relationship to this
but i think we need to get some more
facts
and hopefully we do in the coming hours
and days general keene thank you
for your time tonight thank you