The Right Turn

The view of the sea from our office in Beirut is very tantalising . As Rumi and I left work we wondered whether to turn left to the seafront or right to go back to the hotel. If we'd turned left we would have ended up outside a seafront hotel just as Lebanese special forces surrounded a group of suspected terrorists inside, who promptly blew themselves up as the army closed in.

We were feeling a bit hot and sticky so in the end decided to go back to the hotel… that proved to be the right turn.

All our Lebanaese colleagues are shocked, following the raid on the Napoleon Hotel last week, the suicide bombing in the southern suburbs a couple of days ago and now this, not in the usual insecure southern suburbs, but well out of what we would consider 'the danger zone'. With everything happening in the region people are nervous and tensions are high.

Back home tomorrow, though.