US army to deliver relief supplies to Beirut after devastation

The US army will send shipments of water, food and medicine to Lebanon in wake of the massive explosion that left Beirut devastated with hundreds of thousands homeless.

Deliveries of three C-17 military planes loaded with food, water and medical supplies were "impending," an official said.

The US was ready to continue providing assistance to the Lebanese during the "terrible tragedy" in partnership with the Lebanese army, the US embassy in Lebanon and the US international aid agency, USAID, said on Thursday.

Meanwhile, public anger in Lebanon is on the boil over the blast caused by a massive pile of ammonium nitrate that had for years lain in a ramshackle portside warehouse. It left at least 137 dead and 5,000 injured, and hundreds of thousands of people homeless.

The fallout is expected to cost billions in a small country already plunged into an unprecedented economic and social crisis, battling the coronavirus, and where almost half of the inhabitants live in poverty.