Mass evacuation from bombed Lebanon gains momentum
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-07-22 11:52 LARNACA, Cyprus, July 22 -
Ships and aircraft worked through the night into Saturday scooping more tired
and scared people from war-battered Lebanon and bringing them to safety in
Cyprus and Turkey.
The Pentagon said 4,400 Americans had escaped from Lebanon on Friday by sea
and air, the largest single day total to date in the operation to save foreign
nationals trapped in the relentless cross-fire between Israel and Hizbollah
guerrillas.
The amphibious transport USS Trenton, the biggest ship so far involved in the
evacuation, deposited a further 1,800 people at the Cypriot port of Limassol in
the early hours of Saturday.
Nearly 200 non-essential United Nations staff and their families walked
ashore from a boat chartered by the world body.
British and Australian servicemen also stepped up efforts to rescue their
nationals as Israel announced plans to allow aid agencies to deliver food and
medicine to thousands of displaced people in Lebanon.
"In the next couple of days we are really going to start moving a lot of
people through here," said Australia's High Commissioner in Cyprus, Garth Hunt,
at the port of Larnaca.
"As far as we concerned, nobody should have to fend for themselves," he said
after welcoming ashore nearly 350 Australians transported by a Maltese catamaran
contracted by the Canberra government.
The British government, in an announcement carried by the BBC, said Saturday
would be the last scheduled British maritime evacuation of U.K. passport-holders
from Beirut.
It urged those wanting to leave to gather at a conference hall in the
Lebanese capital between 8 am and 4 pm local time.
MAYHEM
Evacuees coming ashore described scenes of mayhem back in Lebanon, where many
had been holidaying or visiting family when the Israeli rockets began falling 11
days ago.
|
