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| Britain |
| British war ships headed for Lebanon for evacuations |
| 2006-07-16 |
| TWO British warships were powering towards Lebanon today as part of a risky plan to evacuate up to 10,000 British nationals from the war-struck country, starting with the most vulnerable. In an agonising wait for everyone involved, the boats were not expected to arrive before Wednesday, Foreign Office minister Kim Howells said, noting that Britain was moving as fast as possible to rescue its nationals. "But it's going to take some doing," Mr Howells told BBC radio. "There's essentially a war going on there at the moment, there are shells being fired, there are war planes zooming overhead," he said. "We've seen these scenes of some countries trying to get people out by buses when they've been endangered by explosions on the sides of the roads. "We don't want to do that to our citizens. We want to get those who we need to get out as safely and as quickly as possible." As well as the two navy ships – HMS Illustrious and HMS Bulwar – Britain had other boats, including merchant vessels, in the Mediterranean that might be called on to carry evacuees to a reception centre in Cyprus, Mr Howells said. He acknowledged that it was a worrying time for those in Lebanon and gave assurances that the navy would reach them by Wednesday, or Thursday at the latest. "The people must be absolutely terrified," he said. At the same time, British officials on the ground needed the next few days to prepare for the evacuation. "Remember this though, we have to negotiate with the Lebanese, we have to negotiate with the Israelis," Mr Howells said. "It's no good us sending helicopters in if they are going to be shot at by whomever. "We don't know, for example, what the attitudes of the terrorists ... are going to be in this situation." Mr Howells noted that Britain was "one of the lead nations" on the evacuation plans, and was working in co-operation with the US and Australia. There are about 10,000 British nationals in Lebanon, but officials are trying to identify the most needy. These include the elderly, children, or people there without friends or support, such as business travellers. Mr Howells acknowledged that "lots of others" would not want to move because they felt safer staying put. The evacuation plan came as more than 50 Lebanese were killed in a devastating blitz of Israeli airstrikes yesterday and the Jewish state was hit by an unprecedented rocket attack. |
| Posted by:Oztralian |
| #2 Pulling out foreign nationals gives Israel a freer hand. |
| Posted by: Iblis 2006-07-16 23:42 |
| #1 The morning news here in Oz was full of people saying the government should evacuate Australian nationals in Lebanon and now the Brits are sending warships. This is nuts. Unless you live next door to a Hezbollah base (and in which case you should move), the risk is minimal. You will be at more risk being evacuated, given the anti-ship missiles flying and trigger happy terrorists who are likely to open up on helicopters. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2006-07-16 22:00 |