Ship carrying 1,000 Americans reaches Cyprus

updated 10:29 p.m. ET July 19, 2006

BEIRUT, Lebanon - The United States ramped up its evacuation of citizens from Lebanon after a slow start as a luxury cruise ship carrying 1,000 Americans arrived in Cyprus early Thursday, a week after the Israeli bombardment began.

The Orient Queen reached Cyprus’ port of Larnaca after a nine-hour journey, completing the first in a massive relay to evacuate thousands of U.S. citizens from war-ton Lebanon.

The eight-deck cruise liner’s voyage was the first mass U.S. exodus from Lebanon since Israeli airstrikes started more than a week ago. The Orient Queen was just one among dozens of cruise ships taking part in the evacuation of thousands of foreigners from Lebanon.

“I didn’t want to leave because I thought that if there were 25,000 Americans in Lebanon, maybe the Israelis would think twice about what they were hitting,” passenger Catherine Haidar of Orange County, Calif. told The Associated Press after the ship arrived in Larnaca.

Haidar, her husband Mahmoud and their four daughters, aged 9-17, had been staying 5 miles from a bridge connecting Beirut to Damascus and she said their house was shaking from the bombings.

The Americans departed two days after the first Europeans left on ships, and thousands more Europeans continued to stream out by sea Wednesday.

Amid complaints the U.S. effort had lagged, American officials made clear that fears about Americans traveling on roads in Beirut, especially at night, and on roads to Syria had led to some of the delays. The U.S. ambassador said Tuesday that an orderly and safe evacuation had been a first priority.

The Europeans faced some of the same difficulties: the airport closed by Israeli strikes and concerns about the safety of roads to Syria. But it was clear U.S. officials feared any large evacuation effort moving Americans might be targeted by Hezbollah or other hostile groups.

Ann Shebbo, another American passenger on the Orient Queen, said she felt guilty about leaving Lebanon when others had no choice but to remain behind. She left brothers and sisters behind in the Shouf mountains.

“I wanted to leave because of my children. But they have children too,” she told AP after arriving in Larnaca. “The Lebanese people should not suffer this way.”

Shebbo, who is married to a Lebanese man and now lives in the United Arab Emirates, had been staying in a house near a power plant that was bombed and she said the fuel burned for several days.

Earlier on Wednesday, Lebanese police lined the main coastal road in Beirut as armored SUVs full of security guards escorted buses of Americans from an assembly point to the port to board the ship.

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