Israel strikes Lebanon
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feederband
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stormtruth wrote:I think Israel could have delayed at least the airport strike but I agree with you that a mass evac would be very difficult now.
The purpose behind that was to prevent Hezbollah from moving the kidnapped soldiers out of Lebanon and into Iran. Blockade.....
Fox just reported that the US is advising our citizens in Lebanon to get to Cypress where they can be transported out....
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PARIS, France (AP) -- European nations lined up ferries, buses and airplanes to evacuate thousands of their citizens from Lebanon, increasingly under siege from Israeli attacks.
France, which has historic ties to Lebanon and 17,000 citizens residing there, announced plans Saturday to ferry French nationals to Cyprus where Air France flights would be waiting to bring them to Paris.
The voluntary evacuations will begin Sunday. In addition to French residents, up to 6,000 other French citizens were estimated to be in Lebanon visiting.
"We want to take all the necessary measures for the security of our citizens," Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said at the end of a crisis meeting Saturday morning. The government would evaluate the situation in Lebanon "hour by hour" and adapt measures if needed, he said. He did not raise the possibility of mandatory evacuations.
So far, no country is known to have ordered all of its citizens out of Lebanon.
A convoy of 410 Italians and others, mainly from the EU, packed up and fled on Saturday, traveling by land to Latakia, Syria. They were boarding military flights to Rome, some going first to Cyprus, the head of the Italian Foreign Ministry's crisis unit, Elisabetta Belloni, said. More than 1,000 Italians remain in Lebanon.
Israeli warplanes struck Lebanon's transport routes and infrastructure for a fourth day on Saturday in response to the capture Wednesday of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah guerrillas who crossed the Israeli-Lebanese border.
Two Romanian lawmakers and their families also were evacuated to Syria on Saturday, cutting short a vacation. Nicolae Bara told private news television Realitatea TV that the group of 13 people were then going on to Turkey.
Another 160 Romanians requested to leave Lebanon, Romanian Ambassador Aurel Calin told Realitatea and the embassy in Beirut was looking for bus transport to Syria.
Germany, meanwhile, urged an estimated 1,100 German citizens in Lebanon to stay put but avoid unnecessary travel and stay away from potential Israeli targets such as airports and harbors.
Diplomats in Berlin were monitoring the situation closely, preparing for all possible scenarios, the Foreign Ministry said without elaborating.
European Union countries' embassies in Lebanon were reported to be in close contact.
Cyprus said Friday that it was prepared to help the EU with an evacuation plan.
"They have asked us for the facilities (ports and airports) in case this mission is conducted and it will concern all European citizens," Foreign Ministry official Sotos Zackheos said. "The government of Cyprus has given its consent."
Zackheos said France was looking at ways to coordinate EU efforts. No decision was known to have been reached.
The Greek government has said it had chartered an Olympic Airways plane and was ready to fly it to Jordan should any Greek or EU citizens ask to return home. The plane could leave on three hours' notice, the Greek Foreign Ministry said.
As early as Thursday, a group of 115 Cypriots and other foreign nationals, were bussed to Syria then evacuated to Cyprus.
The evacuees -- 102 Cypriots, six Britons, four French, two Czechs and one American -- made the journey out.
France, which has historic ties to Lebanon and 17,000 citizens residing there, announced plans Saturday to ferry French nationals to Cyprus where Air France flights would be waiting to bring them to Paris.
The voluntary evacuations will begin Sunday. In addition to French residents, up to 6,000 other French citizens were estimated to be in Lebanon visiting.
"We want to take all the necessary measures for the security of our citizens," Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said at the end of a crisis meeting Saturday morning. The government would evaluate the situation in Lebanon "hour by hour" and adapt measures if needed, he said. He did not raise the possibility of mandatory evacuations.
So far, no country is known to have ordered all of its citizens out of Lebanon.
A convoy of 410 Italians and others, mainly from the EU, packed up and fled on Saturday, traveling by land to Latakia, Syria. They were boarding military flights to Rome, some going first to Cyprus, the head of the Italian Foreign Ministry's crisis unit, Elisabetta Belloni, said. More than 1,000 Italians remain in Lebanon.
Israeli warplanes struck Lebanon's transport routes and infrastructure for a fourth day on Saturday in response to the capture Wednesday of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah guerrillas who crossed the Israeli-Lebanese border.
Two Romanian lawmakers and their families also were evacuated to Syria on Saturday, cutting short a vacation. Nicolae Bara told private news television Realitatea TV that the group of 13 people were then going on to Turkey.
Another 160 Romanians requested to leave Lebanon, Romanian Ambassador Aurel Calin told Realitatea and the embassy in Beirut was looking for bus transport to Syria.
Germany, meanwhile, urged an estimated 1,100 German citizens in Lebanon to stay put but avoid unnecessary travel and stay away from potential Israeli targets such as airports and harbors.
Diplomats in Berlin were monitoring the situation closely, preparing for all possible scenarios, the Foreign Ministry said without elaborating.
European Union countries' embassies in Lebanon were reported to be in close contact.
Cyprus said Friday that it was prepared to help the EU with an evacuation plan.
"They have asked us for the facilities (ports and airports) in case this mission is conducted and it will concern all European citizens," Foreign Ministry official Sotos Zackheos said. "The government of Cyprus has given its consent."
Zackheos said France was looking at ways to coordinate EU efforts. No decision was known to have been reached.
The Greek government has said it had chartered an Olympic Airways plane and was ready to fly it to Jordan should any Greek or EU citizens ask to return home. The plane could leave on three hours' notice, the Greek Foreign Ministry said.
As early as Thursday, a group of 115 Cypriots and other foreign nationals, were bussed to Syria then evacuated to Cyprus.
The evacuees -- 102 Cypriots, six Britons, four French, two Czechs and one American -- made the journey out.
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I would rather see a CAT 5 lurking. Hurricanes are natural and uncontrollable, they serve a climatological purpose, and it comes in and then leaves within a shorter time frame. But with war only certain people are in control, the only purpose is hurt others until they submit to your way of thinking and it can go on for years. Guess I understand weather more than people.
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You are right zoeyann. I think the comparison was made because everyone seems to be glued to the TV, hungry for information.
I am very concerned about this - I am very afraid Iran will get into this, thereby forcing US into this. I've seen what war does to a soldier, it's not pretty. I just hope we can avoid getting involved....
I am very concerned about this - I am very afraid Iran will get into this, thereby forcing US into this. I've seen what war does to a soldier, it's not pretty. I just hope we can avoid getting involved....
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Skywatch_NC
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sunny wrote:Good point, Janice.
On a side note - North Korea is being too quiet for my taste.....
Yes, it is surprising that they aren't jealous from lack of attention and "testing" more missiles...
Who knows...Kim Yong II is probably doing cheers for Hezbollah.
Last edited by Skywatch_NC on Sat Jul 15, 2006 12:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Just saw this on msnbc.com
American college students hole up in Beirut
‘I've never been this scared in my life,’ one tells MSNBC.com
By Bob Sullivan
Reporter
MSNBC
Updated: 5:43 p.m. CT July 14, 2006
Joanne Nucho thought she would be spending her summer in a safe Western-style city when she headed off to Beirut, Lebanon, to study Arabic as part of her doctoral program at UCLA. The city is hip and urban, with many comforts of home — there's even a McDonald's across the street from her school, American University in Beirut, and several Starbucks stores nearby.
But suddenly she finds herself huddled in a college dormitory with 40 other Americans, trapped in the middle of an undeclared war and fearing for her life.
"I've never been this scared in my life," she told MSNBC.com by phone Friday afternoon (the middle of the night in Beirut). "... Two hours ago I was curled up in a corner crying. The sound of the bombs are shaking me to the bones. My whole body is in trauma. ... As an American you never experience things like this. You see it on TV, but it's nothing like this."
Nucho, 27, is one of several hundred U.S. residents studying abroad this summer at the American University in Beirut, a school accredited in New York state that has about 7,000 students, most of them from Middle Eastern countries.
Nucho is one of about 40 students in the summer Arabic language program, many of whom have been huddled in a university dormitory since fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah guerrillas broke out Wednesday.
Reached via cell phone about 3 p.m. ET, Nucho said that before heading to the lower floors of the dormitory, she spied a battery of warships just off the coast in the Mediterranean Sea. All night, rockets from the ship soared over the school, she said.
Rockets roar overhead
"The ships are all about a few hundred meters from my balcony," she said. As rockets fly overhead, "The sound is awful."
The group is holed up in a low floor on the dormitory, one that is "not a proper shelter," she said. She has access to clean water and some food she bought at a local store during the day, but not much. There are no school officials nearby, so the students are running the shelter operations by themselves.
"It's literally being run by 19-year-olds," she said. "We don't know what to do."
"I just want to go home," she added.
Prospects of that aren't good right now. Beirut airport, about 10 miles south of the school, is closed, bombed earlier this week by Israeli warplanes.
U.S. State Department officials are discussing the possibility of evacuation with the Defense Department, but for now, the roughly 25,000 U.S. citizens in Lebanon are being told to stay put.
"There aren't any ... reliable ways to get out by air, land or sea," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Friday. U.S. citizens are being told to "assess what is best for their own personal security."
If conditions change and a reliable way out emerges, Americans are urged to leave, McCormack told NBC's Libby Leist.
Nucho said so far she has heard nothing from officials at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, which is about 20 miles from her dorm.
Administrators at the American University of Beirut also are telling its students they are safest where they are. The school is not affiliated with American University in Washington, D.C.
‘Never been bombed’
“(The school) has never been bombed, even during the civil war,” university spokeswoman Ada H. Porter said from New York. “Even during the civil war, all factions respected our borders. We have always had a major hospital that treated everybody, and it has never been closed.”
She said that the area of Beirut where the school is located is not currently being bombed, and the school has electricity and running water.
“Obviously, the current situation in Lebanon is of great concern to all members of the AUB community,” Provost Peter Heath write in a message to students and faculty on Thursday. “I met with international students, including those attending the CAMES summer Arabic program, to advise them to stay on or very close to campus.”
A full-scale evacuation would be a complex undertaking, but State Department officials told NBC News on Friday that the U.S. military would be up to the task.
A senior Pentagon official told NBC’s Scott Foster that the Defense Department is "watching the situation closely" in Lebanon and that it is prepared to provide any assistance that might be needed if a decision is made to evacuate U.S. citizens in the region.
Pentagon developing contingency plans
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Pentagon is working on a number of contingency plans, ranging from the removal of a "small handful of people" to more robust missions to evacuate much larger numbers.
The official noted that there has not yet been any specific request from the State Department to evacuate U.S. citizens.
But that's exactly what Nucho was requesting during her phone call with MSNBC.com — a way out of Beirut.
"Please don't forget about us. I won't be sleeping tonight," she said in an e-mail after the telephone line went dead. "Please try to keep in touch. Please try to help. I'm so afraid."
Americans can call 1-888-407-4747, within the U.S., for updates on travel in Lebanon or 202-501-4444 outside of the U.S. The State Department has not set up a number for people to check on the welfare and whereabouts of loved ones, as no casualties have been reported.
NBC News producers Scott Foster and Libby Leist contributed to this report.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13862665/
American college students hole up in Beirut
‘I've never been this scared in my life,’ one tells MSNBC.com
By Bob Sullivan
Reporter
MSNBC
Updated: 5:43 p.m. CT July 14, 2006
Joanne Nucho thought she would be spending her summer in a safe Western-style city when she headed off to Beirut, Lebanon, to study Arabic as part of her doctoral program at UCLA. The city is hip and urban, with many comforts of home — there's even a McDonald's across the street from her school, American University in Beirut, and several Starbucks stores nearby.
But suddenly she finds herself huddled in a college dormitory with 40 other Americans, trapped in the middle of an undeclared war and fearing for her life.
"I've never been this scared in my life," she told MSNBC.com by phone Friday afternoon (the middle of the night in Beirut). "... Two hours ago I was curled up in a corner crying. The sound of the bombs are shaking me to the bones. My whole body is in trauma. ... As an American you never experience things like this. You see it on TV, but it's nothing like this."
Nucho, 27, is one of several hundred U.S. residents studying abroad this summer at the American University in Beirut, a school accredited in New York state that has about 7,000 students, most of them from Middle Eastern countries.
Nucho is one of about 40 students in the summer Arabic language program, many of whom have been huddled in a university dormitory since fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah guerrillas broke out Wednesday.
Reached via cell phone about 3 p.m. ET, Nucho said that before heading to the lower floors of the dormitory, she spied a battery of warships just off the coast in the Mediterranean Sea. All night, rockets from the ship soared over the school, she said.
Rockets roar overhead
"The ships are all about a few hundred meters from my balcony," she said. As rockets fly overhead, "The sound is awful."
The group is holed up in a low floor on the dormitory, one that is "not a proper shelter," she said. She has access to clean water and some food she bought at a local store during the day, but not much. There are no school officials nearby, so the students are running the shelter operations by themselves.
"It's literally being run by 19-year-olds," she said. "We don't know what to do."
"I just want to go home," she added.
Prospects of that aren't good right now. Beirut airport, about 10 miles south of the school, is closed, bombed earlier this week by Israeli warplanes.
U.S. State Department officials are discussing the possibility of evacuation with the Defense Department, but for now, the roughly 25,000 U.S. citizens in Lebanon are being told to stay put.
"There aren't any ... reliable ways to get out by air, land or sea," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Friday. U.S. citizens are being told to "assess what is best for their own personal security."
If conditions change and a reliable way out emerges, Americans are urged to leave, McCormack told NBC's Libby Leist.
Nucho said so far she has heard nothing from officials at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, which is about 20 miles from her dorm.
Administrators at the American University of Beirut also are telling its students they are safest where they are. The school is not affiliated with American University in Washington, D.C.
‘Never been bombed’
“(The school) has never been bombed, even during the civil war,” university spokeswoman Ada H. Porter said from New York. “Even during the civil war, all factions respected our borders. We have always had a major hospital that treated everybody, and it has never been closed.”
She said that the area of Beirut where the school is located is not currently being bombed, and the school has electricity and running water.
“Obviously, the current situation in Lebanon is of great concern to all members of the AUB community,” Provost Peter Heath write in a message to students and faculty on Thursday. “I met with international students, including those attending the CAMES summer Arabic program, to advise them to stay on or very close to campus.”
A full-scale evacuation would be a complex undertaking, but State Department officials told NBC News on Friday that the U.S. military would be up to the task.
A senior Pentagon official told NBC’s Scott Foster that the Defense Department is "watching the situation closely" in Lebanon and that it is prepared to provide any assistance that might be needed if a decision is made to evacuate U.S. citizens in the region.
Pentagon developing contingency plans
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Pentagon is working on a number of contingency plans, ranging from the removal of a "small handful of people" to more robust missions to evacuate much larger numbers.
The official noted that there has not yet been any specific request from the State Department to evacuate U.S. citizens.
But that's exactly what Nucho was requesting during her phone call with MSNBC.com — a way out of Beirut.
"Please don't forget about us. I won't be sleeping tonight," she said in an e-mail after the telephone line went dead. "Please try to keep in touch. Please try to help. I'm so afraid."
Americans can call 1-888-407-4747, within the U.S., for updates on travel in Lebanon or 202-501-4444 outside of the U.S. The State Department has not set up a number for people to check on the welfare and whereabouts of loved ones, as no casualties have been reported.
NBC News producers Scott Foster and Libby Leist contributed to this report.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13862665/
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The comparison is a good one. We all want to know whats happening, making predictions, urging those who can evac to do so, and gas is going up.
For most civilians once the war is over it is over, but for so many like the person you mention the health and emotional aftermath can last a lifetime.
For most civilians once the war is over it is over, but for so many like the person you mention the health and emotional aftermath can last a lifetime.
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conestogo_flood
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feederband
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cycloneye
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Israel handles 72 hour ultimatum to Syria
Here is where this may expand to other countries.I would haved included Iran in the ultimatum.
Here is where this may expand to other countries.I would haved included Iran in the ultimatum.
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