Thousands of Lebanon evacuees flood into Cyprus

A refugee family arrives at Minsk airport yesterday from Damascus airport after fleeing war-torn Beirut with another 170 Belarus citizens. PHOTO: AFP

Around 1,000 Americans, visibly relieved to have escaped the relentless aerial bombing, disembarked overnight in the port of Larnaca from USS Nashville after being rescued by US Marines.

About the same number arrived at the port of Limassol on a cruise liner chartered by the US government.

"They (the Israelis) are targeting civilians. They call themselves civilized, but they are barbaric. I don't want my kid to grow up like that," said Habib Kheil, a professor of mathematics from Michigan.

"We arrived two days before (the bombardment) started. The children were so scared, they huddled all together and stayed in the lowest part of the house," he said, breaking into sobs and hugging his eight-year-old son Abdul.

Dutchwoman Amna Choucair, a 30-year-old mother of two who has lived in Lebanon for 10 years, said she still hoped to return to her adopted home.

"We left everything behind... It is such a waste. Hopefully we will be back soon. The kids have a life there."

US officials said they had arranged six charter flights to carry Americans from Cyprus to Baltimore free of charge. They expect to have evacuated 6,000 Americans from Lebanon by Friday.

Cypriot Foreign Minister Georgios Lillikas said his country, with a population of just under a million, was struggling to deal with the crisis and he repeated his call to Nicosia's European Union partners to help share the burden.