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Nerves wilt as Americans wait

The U.S. ambassador says better slow than sorry, citing security concerns for what many call a lagging effort to start Lebanon evacuations.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published July 19, 2006

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Jonathan Chakhtoura, a 19-year-old Lebanese-American, is eager to escape the Mideast fighting here. But he says he's extremely disappointed with the way U.S. authorities have handled the evacuation.

"Every time I call to see what's going on the lines are busy," he said of the U.S. Embassy. "When they answer, they say they don't know," said Chakhtoura, who wants to be back in Boston before his fashion design classes start Sept. 6.

A cruise ship sailed into Beirut late Tuesday to begin shuttling thousands of Americans to safety amid criticism that the U.S. effort lagged behind Europe's.

The commander of the 5th Fleet said evacuees would begin boarding 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, and 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.

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 said that more than 1,000 Americans would depart today.

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. 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 of those countries' nationals away from Lebanon.

Canada has ships headed to Beirut for evacuations.

Outside the gates of the U.S. Embassy, Californian Elie Kawkabani, who lives in Beirut, was angry about delays.

"The embassy is providing us with sketchy information and they are being rude to us here at the gate," he said. "We have other options, like leaving through Syria, but they keep stringing us along day after day."

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."

After criticism from Congress, the State Department dropped plans to ask Americans to pay for their rides on commercial vessels.

Israel declared Tuesday it was ready to fight Hezbollah guerrillas for several more weeks and possibly send large numbers of ground forces into Lebanon, raising doubts about international efforts to broker an immediate cease-fire in the fighting that has killed more than 260 people and displaced 500,000.

Israel said early today it sent a small number of troops into southern Lebanon searching for tunnels and weapons.

The Israeli air force kept up its strikes across southern Lebanon, hitting a military base at Kfar Chima, the Lebanese military said. At least 11 soldiers, including four officers, were killed in an engineering unit and 35 were wounded, it said. The base is adjacent to Hezbollah strongholds often targeted by recent Israeli strikes.

Nine members of the same family were killed when a bomb hit their house in the village of Aitaroun, near the border, Lebanon's state-run news agency said.

At least 100 Hezbollah rockets battered Israeli towns, killing an Israeli man in the town of Nahariya and wounding several others, one critically.

Diplomatic efforts to end the fighting continued Tuesday, as a U.N. mediation team met with Israeli leaders a day after speaking with Lebanese officials.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said a cease-fire is impossible unless soldiers captured by Hezbollah in a cross-border raid are released and Lebanese troops are deployed along the border with a guarantee that Hezbollah would be disarmed.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said Israel is "opening the gates of hell and madness." He urged Hezbollah to release the captured soldiers but said Israel's response was disproportionate.

[Last modified July 19, 2006, 01:30:51]