21 U.S. citizens flee Lebanon, page 1

21 American citizens were evacuated today from Lebanon, where hostile warfare is going on between Israel and the Hezbollah. The citizens were evacuated buy two U.S. Marine helicopters to Cyprus. There was one family of four with the total of 21 U.S. Citizens, the family had a medical emergency and was then evacuated as soon as possible. The citizens were urged to not to travel to Syria by land, and were taken by Security forces from the U.S. embassy. There are a total of 25,000 U.S. citizens that wish to be evacuated from Lebanon.

news.yahoo.com
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Two Marine Corps helicopters evacuated 21 Americans from Lebanon to Cyprus on Sunday, and U.S. officials urged others to wait for a formal evacuation plan before they try to leave.

The U.S. citizens evacuated Sunday included a family of four with a sick child and four students, said Maura Harty, assistant secretary of state for consular affairs.

She said the United States had receive hundreds of phone calls from Americans in Lebanon asking for instruction and urged them not to try to travel by land to
Syria. U.S. security teams landed at the U.S. Embassy earlier Sunday to plan the evacuation for any of the 25,000 Americans in Lebanon who wish to leave.

"We obviously have plans and contingency plans should we need to bring people out," Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice told reporters at the Group of Eight summit in Russia. "I get reports on this every couple of hours as to how this is going. Our ambassador who is on the ground will obviously do what we need to protect Americans."

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

The air strikes from Israeli aircraft have shut down Beirut’s international airport. This is posing a great confusion for U.S. security forces trying to evacuate all the U.S. citizens. The U.S. Embassy is also running rampant, with Marine helicopters flying in around the clock, possible evacuation of the embassy is at hand. Already most of the Europeans were evacuated Saturday night, as that count was at 350 people. Also for France which has 17,000 people and 4,000 more visiting, a ferry and air transports have been arranged to get their people out.

Related News Links:
news.yahoo.com
www.chron.com
www.google.com
query.nytimes.com

Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Israel Attacks South Beirut
Hezbollah Seize Israel Soldiers
US and French Embassies Working on Lebanon Evacuation Plans

[edit on 16-7-2006 by ragster]

[edit on 23-7-2006 by DontTreadOnMe]