SPAIN: More evacuees from Lebanon arrive in Madrid

Spain continued the evacuation of its nationals from Lebanon on Monday (July 17) as Israeli air strikes mounted in Lebanon. A Spanish Air Force plane from Damascus arrived at Madrid's military base of Torrejon late on Monday (July 17), transporting 99 Spaniards, many of them with Lebanese nationality and 14 other nationals from France, Lebanon and Denmark. Happy to be back but very concern about the situation in Beirut, Diego de Aristegui, a Spanish student of Lebanese origin said he disagrees with the Israeli campaign. "The Israeli response is completely exaggerated, disproportionate and I hope the European Union will take some action because now the silence is the worse thing that is going to happen to our country now," he told Reuters at his arrival. Tired and very sad, Lebanese mother of a two year old son, Mariam Srour left her Spanish husband in Damascus as there was not any more room in the plane for him. "We hope all will be okay and we can see our family again. I came because of my son, otherwise I hadn't left Lebanon," said Srour. Farduz Karrubi, an elderly lady who exited the military airport on a wheel chair said she could not take any more the sound of night sirens and explosions. "The situation is very bad there, very bad. Everything is destroyed and everything is going down," she added. Faces of the evacuees turned to smiles as they met anxious relatives outside Torrejon Military airport. Spain aims to transfer its nationals from Beirut in buses and then fly them in commercial and military planes to Madrid. The first Spanish plane bringing 116 evacuees back home, arrived .in Madrid last Saturday (July 15) Spanish community in Lebanon is estimated to be 600-strong. Another group of Spanish nationals from Lebanon is expected to arrive in Madrid early on Tuesday (July 18). Meanwhile governments across the world continued stepping up measures to evacuate their nationals from Lebanon as the violence there intensified. France dispatched a chartered ferry to Beirut on Monday to pick up several hundred French nationals and take them to the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, 85 km (53 miles) to the west. Washington said it had contracted a cruise ship capable of holding 750 people for a possible large-scale evacuation of U.S. citizens and was sending a U.S. navy destroyer to escort it. An Italian military ship left the port of Larnaca in Cyprus for Lebanon on Monday. An Italian official said the ship's crew planned to evacuate 200 Italians and 120 non-Italians. Britain evacuated about 40 people from Beirut by helicopter on Monday and British warships moved toward the coast for the possible evacuation of 10,000 British passport holders. Germany said it would help a further 500 Germans leave Lebanon on Monday after 200 left at the weekend. Sweden and the Netherlands said hundreds of their nationals had reached Syria. Swedish, Norwegian and Danish ship evacuations were also planned and Greece said a navy frigate was heading to Larnaca to await orders. Many other countries, including Russia, said they would evacuate citizens via Syria. Nigerian Foreign Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said more than 100 Nigerians had been evacuated to a town close to the Syrian border. He said Nigeria was assisting other African nationals, including people from Ghana, Senegal and Ethiopia. Since Thursday, thousands of foreigners have left Lebanon by car to Syria, forced to flee overland after Israeli forces bombed Beirut's airport.

ITN Source | July 18, 2006

Tags:. .cruise. .russia. .italians. .israeli. .diego