Oil from bombed plant covers Lebanon shore

AP Photo: A layer of crude oil covers the Ramlet el-Beida* public beach in Beirut, Lebanon Friday,...

BEIRUT, Lebanon - A black coat of oil now covers the Lebanese capital's once-beautiful sandy Mediterranean shore, spilled from a power plant that was knocked down by Israeli warplanes two weeks ago.

Fishermen say hundreds of oil-coated fish have been washed ashore in what is the country's worst ever environmental disaster

About 80 miles of Lebanon's shores had been affected by a spill of more than 110,000 barrels of oil from the Jiyeh plant, about 12 miles south of Beirut, the city's mayor, Abdel Monem Ariss, said Friday. The plant was in flames after it was hit in Israeli air raids, cutting electricity to many areas in the capital and south Lebanon.

A shipment of 10 trucks from Kuwait containing material and equipment was to arrive Friday night via
Syria to help contain the spill, but crews cannot get to the shores to start cleanup work because of the hostilities, Ariss said.

"It's going to take a long time to clean it because most of our shores are rocky shores and when the oil sticks to the rock you have to scrub it (by hand)," he said.

Fishermen on Beirut's only sandy public beach of Ramlet al-Baida said the black slick appeared about 10 days ago. Some residents have said they had problems breathing.

*Ramlet el-Beida

in arabic means the white sand..Now ..Black!!!!!!