In the days immediately following the huge blast in Beirut on Aug. 4, international aid started arriving to help the Lebanese deal with the devastation in its aftermath. From the U.S., the first of three promised planeloads of relief supplies landed in Beirut only a few hours after Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, spoke with Lebanese Army chief Maj. Gen. Joseph Aoun. “General McKenzie expressed U.S. willingness to continue to work with the Lebanese Armed Forces to help provide aid and assistance to meet the needs of the Lebanese people during this terrible tragedy,” Centcom said in its readout of the phone call.
Even before the first U.S. plane arrived, the Russian Emergencies Ministry had already deployed a 50-bed mobile hospital to Beirut’s Rafic Hariri Stadium. “Doctors have examined 13 patients who received necessary treatment. Tests for coronavirus have been carried out as well,” the ministry‛s crisis center told TASS. At least four planes from Moscow have landed in Beirut carrying more than 100 rescue workers and medical personnel along with medical and other equipment.
