'Endless nightmare': South Beirut residents check the damage after 'most violent night'

Beirut (Lebanon) (AFP) – Sipping a coffee in front of a blaring television as black smoke rose from the rubble nearby, Ali Mahmoud, 63, recounted a night of terror in Beirut's southern suburbs. "We were at the coffee shop when we heard the strikes," he said early on Sunday.

"We whisked our families out of the suburb into the city. We were scared like everybody else."

Mahmoud said he had come back to see what state his home was in, and to collect a few belongings for relatives who were now sleeping in the street.