Rescue Ship Laden With Americans Reaches Safe Haven in Cyprus

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The New York Sun

BEIRUT, Lebanon — America ramped up its evacuation of citizens from Lebanon after a slow start as a luxury cruise ship carrying 1,000 Americans arrived in Cyprus early today, a week after the Israeli bombardment began.

The Orient Queen reached Cyprus’s port of Larnaca after a nine-hour journey, completing the first in a massive relay to evacuate thousands of American citizens from war-torn Lebanon.

The eight-deck cruise liner’s voyage was the first mass American exodus from Lebanon since Israeli airstrikes started more than a week ago. The Orient Queen was just one among dozens of cruise ships taking part in the evacuation of thousands of foreigners from Lebanon.

The Americans departed two days after the first Europeans left on ships, and thousands more Europeans continued to stream out by sea yesterday.

Amid complaints the American effort had lagged, American officials made clear that fears about Americans traveling on roads in Beirut, especially at night, and on roads to Syria had led to some of the delays. The American ambassador said Tuesday that an orderly and safe evacuation had been a first priority.

The Europeans faced some of the same difficulties: the airport closed by Israeli strikes and concerns about the safety of roads to Syria. But it was clear American officials feared any large evacuation effort moving Americans might be targeted by Hezbollah or other hostile groups.

Prime Minister Harper of Canada arrived at Larnaca airport early today in his military Airbus A310 to pick up 120 evacuees from Lebanon and fly them home.

Lebanese police lined the main coastal road in Beirut as armored SUVs full of security guards escorted buses of Americans from an assembly point to the port to board the ship.

American Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman, waving on the dock as the ship pulled out, said the evacuation would quickly swell to up to 2,000 Americans a day, both by sea and by helicopter.

“We expect this to go on for the next week until every American who has asked us for help to leave, gets to leave,” Mr. Feltman told the Associated Press.

Around 8,000 of the 25,000 Americans in Lebanon have asked to be evacuated.

Military helicopters flew 200 Americans from the hilltop American Embassy to Larnaca. Chinook helicopters were taking over the task, capable of carrying 60 people each, twice as many as the Sea Stallions that have been ferrying out Americans since Sunday.

A Navy task force of nine ships, seven of which were en route late yesterday, will help with the evacuation. Two more passenger ships chartered by the Navy — the Rahman and the Vittoria M — were due to arrive tomorrow, giving American authorities the ability to take 2,700 passengers daily, according to the Navy’s Sealift Command spokesman, Tim Boulay. He said they were seeking more ships.

In Washington, Assistant Secretary of State Maura Harty said America expects to bring about 1,200 people to Cyprus from Beirut today. The Orient Queen also will turn around and return to Beirut for another run, she said.

She urged American citizens in Lebanon to register with the embassy by e-mail or phone, and urged relatives or friends in America to report the whereabouts of Americans in Lebanon by calling 888-407-4747.

At 4 a.m.yesterday, the embassy telephone call went out to hundreds of waiting Americans to head to the assembly point to be bused to the Orient Queen.

Among them was Rima Issa, who had been in Lebanon visiting relatives. Her 9-year-old son Noureddine had only a week’s supply of anti-rejection medicine he needs because of a liver transplant he underwent as an infant.

She pleaded with embassy officials for days to get out — and was out the door by 6:30 a.m. after getting the call.

Noureddine “was happy to be leaving, but he was unhappy because he never had the chance to enjoy his holiday as much as he wanted,” Ms. Issa’s mother, Mariam Rifaa’i, told the AP.

“Noureddine has been shaking like a bird when he heard explosions. He would scream ‘I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die,'” she said.

At the assembly point, evacuees drank orange juice and ate military Meals Ready to Eat as their papers were checked. Then the buses rolled out in several waves to the port.

“I’m so relieved, there are no words to explain. I’m very thankful,” said Elizabeth Kassab, a 45-year-old blonde, nervously smoking a cigarette on the ship’s deck. “But I’m still nervous and I won’t relax until we get out of here.”

There were emotional goodbyes, hugs and tears as the Americans, many of Lebanese descent, were dropped off by relatives.

“I can’t believe the Americans,” Danni Atiyeh, a 39-year-old civil engineer from Kansas City, Mo., said as he stood with his pregnant wife and sons Ali, 10, and Adrian, 6, waiting for buses to the ship. “Everybody else has gone home. … We’re still here.”

The State Department said Tuesday it had dropped a plan to make Americans reimburse the government for the trip, but Mr. Atiyeh said he and others were asked to sign promissory notes to pay for the voyage before they could board.

There were nervous moments. A light-haired woman standing alone waiting to have her passport checked broke into tears when a loud explosion shook Beirut from an airstrike on Hezbollah’s stronghold in the capital’s south.

The departure was delayed slightly because one passenger, 11-day-old infant Rawan Ali Mannoun, didn’t have a passport. Her parents pleaded with embassy officials to allow them on the ship and in the end, a laissez-passer was issued for the infant. As her parents ran toward the waiting ship carrying Rawan, those on the deck applauded.

At the same port, a ship carried the second load in as many days of Greeks out of Lebanon. Denmark evacuated more than 4,000 of its citizens, continuing a flow of Europeans that began Sunday.

The Orient Queen arrived in Beirut on Tuesday night. It was held up en route by Israeli ships because it had Lebanese on board, who had been taking a cruise in the eastern Mediterranean when the fighting began.

Israel has imposed a sea blockade three miles off shore as part of the campaign launched after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers July 12 in a cross-border raid. But its warships have been letting through evacuation ships.

Mr. Feltman said the embassy did the best it could. “People are scared, they wanted to get out immediately. But we had to make sure there was safe travel,” he said.

A Pentagon spokesman, Bryan Whitman, said another difficulty was that the Beirut port was so busy it was hard to get ships in and out.

“The important thing is we’re here, we’re leaving,” an electric engineer from Seattle, Nader Nader, said. He arrived in Lebanon with his son, Benjamin, last week.

“Hell broke loose,” he said, shaking his head.


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