Reporting from Beirut: 'How could this have been allowed to happen?'

The Guardian's Middle East writers reflect on a week of devastation and anger after a blast that shocked the world

For most of my 15 years in the Middle East, I've had a home in Beirut. It's been a sanctuary to return to from countless trips around the region, a place where the rigours, and sometimes dangers, of Iraq, Syria, Libya and elsewhere could be set aside for a while.