Posted on 07/14/2006 1:57:35 PM PDT by Pyro7480
US tells citizens to consider leaving Lebanon
WASHINGTON - The United States has urged U.S. citizens to consider leaving Lebanon when conditions permit, the State Department said on Friday as Israel attacked Hizbollah targets and civilian installations.
But no U.S. official or American citizen has left Lebanon because there is no way to leave, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, and the U.S. government is discussing contingency plans to help Americans leave.
"Conditions permitting, we have urged American citizens to consider leaving Lebanon," McCormack told reporters.
He said the U.S. government was advising U.S. citizens in Lebanon to "assess their personal security situation" amid violence which escalated when the Lebanese guerrilla group Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers on the Israeli-Lebanese border on Wednesday.
Israeli aircraft rocketed runways at Beirut's already closed international airport and warplanes blasted the main Beirut-Damascus highway overnight, tightening an air, sea and land blockade of Lebanon.
The State Department estimates that about 25,000 U.S. citizens, including people with dual citizenship, live in Lebanon, although summer visits could expand that community.
"Right now ... from the U.S. government perspective, there aren't any ways to get out -- reliable ways to get out by air, land or sea," McCormack said.
He said if conditions allowed, some U.S. officials, nonemergency personnel and family members would leave.
"We would, as part of that planning, see how we can accommodate those American citizens who want to leave that are in the country," McCormack said.
Pentagon officials have said the U.S. military was closely monitoring the situation and has ships in the region that could be used in the event U.S. officials order an evacuation of American citizens from Lebanon.
The military has the helicopter carrier USS Iwo Jima heading a seven-ship group taking part in an exercise off the coast of Jordan, officials said.
I'll bet they never even considered it until urged by our State Department to do so.
FYI
Things are HEATING up!
Now that's kind-of a definite sounding, maybe mandate, huh?
I saw it on CNN.
You are correct, sir!
Here's the official Warning by the State Department:
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_2123.html
Which is why God invented Cluster Bombs and F-18s.
US tells citizens to consider leaving Lebanon
I doubt they needed to be told to consider leaving.
How come they pulled that other thread that announced this about a half an hour ago?
they should add Damascus and Tehran to the list of places to leave.
The Israelis don't have a beachhead yet in Beirut...are they leaving that to somebody else?
How slow am I? :)
LSSS, but it's now all over CNN. This thread will probably get pulled also.
00:01 Foreign Ministry: Hezbollah conducting `premeditated open act of war` (DPA)
23:20 Explosives-laden drone seriously damages Israel Navy ship off Beirut (Haaretz)
*LSSS
You need something that can loiter over the area longer. How about an A-10?
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