Mass evacuation from Lebanon

Hundreds are evacuated by ship and helicopter. The U.S. aims to get 6,000 out this week; others are stuck in southern Lebanon.
More than 1,000 U.S. citizens were finally able to escape the fighting in Lebanon on Wednesday, as the first chartered cruise ship carrying American evacuees left Beirut for Cyprus.

As many as 6,000 Americans could be out of Lebanon by the weekend, the U.S. State Department said.
Thousands of Europeans are fleeing as well. Britain expects to evacuate about 5,000 citizens in what officials in London were calling the biggest such operation since the World War II evacuation of Dunkirk, France.

The cruise ship Orient Queen took more than 900 Americans to Cyprus on Wednesday. The Associated Press reported the ship arrived in Larnaca after a nine-hour journey. Others were evacuated by helicopter. The Nashville, an amphibious ship that can carry about 1,000 passengers, arrived off the coast of Lebanon early today. Landing craft and possibly helicopters will transport evacuees to the ship, which will be kept well offshore for safety reasons.

About 40 Marines went ashore to aid in the evacuation, Reuters news agency reported.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the military had chartered another commercial vessel, the Rahmah, which is to arrive in Beirut on Friday. It can hold 1,400 passengers, he said.
But the increased efforts to get Americans to safety are, for the moment, bypassing hundreds who are awaiting safe passage out of southern Lebanon.