Americans flee besieged Lebanon
American children prepare to board waiting helicopters to be evacuated from the grounds of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon on Tuesday. The U.S. ambassador said 320 Americans would be evacuated from Lebanon to Cyprus by the end of Tuesday and approxima The Associated Press
July 19, 2006
BEIRUT, Lebanon – A cruise ship sailed into Beirut late Tuesday to begin shuttling thousands of Americans to safety from Mideast fighting, amid fierce criticism that the U.S. effort had lagged behind Europe’s.
The commander of the Fifth Fleet said the ship would begin boarding evacuees at dawn.
“We’re trying to move quickly, trying to move large numbers of people as fast as we can,” said Vice Adm. Patrick Walsh, the top U.S. naval officer in the Middle East. A larger commercial vessel also would be used, he said.
A Pentagon spokesman said the U.S. government was considering hiring as many as four more cruise ships to carry Americans.
Thousands of Europeans already have fled the country, which is under fierce Israeli air attack.
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Earlier in the day, 320 Americans, mostly children, students and the elderly, left by military helicopter and a European ship. U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey D. Feltman told The Associated Press more than 1,000 Americans would depart Wednesday.
The White House defended asking Americans to reimburse the estimated $150 cost of their passage, and the ambassador said the evacuation’s slow start was intended to safeguard Americans.
“We at the embassy don’t have the experience to move a lot of people,” Feltman said. “Luckily, the U.S. government does,” he said. “Security and safe travel were what’s on our minds.”
An estimated 8,000 of the 25,000 Americans in Lebanon want to leave.
European countries began moving hundreds of their citizens to Cyprus on Monday. Nearly 1,000 were on a Swedish-chartered ship that left Beirut on Tuesday, and a British warship and Greek frigate transported nearly 600 nationals away from Lebanon.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the primary concern was that people be taken out in a safe and organized manner. He said the Beirut port was working at a higher capacity than normal, making the evacuation challenging.
White House spokesman Tony Snow said the United States has determined it was not safe to travel by road, adding: “We understand the anxieties of people in Lebanon.”
