Desperate Lebanese Flee to Syria on Foot

[Judi Lynn]

Desperate Lebanese Flee to Syria on Foot
By ALBERT AJI
Associated Press Writer

August 8, 2006, 4:56 PM EDT


ON THE LEBANON-SYRIA BORDER -- Carrying luggage and infants, a couple hundred Lebanese and foreigners stepped around craters left behind from Israeli airstrikes and debris from a destroyed immigration office as they fled war-torn Lebanon for Syria on Tuesday.

Desperate for food, shelter and medicine, they risked being hit by Israeli bombs as they walked along the Beirut-Damascus highway and through the Masnaa border crossing to escape the escalating violence in Lebanon.

"Israel's daily attacks of the crossings and roads will not prevent us from crossing by all means," said Rakan al-Saedi, 45, from the central Lebanese town of Zahle.

The highway, which links the two countries' capitals, once handled hundreds of cars, buses and trucks daily. But after Israeli attacks destroyed large swaths of the road, making traveling by car impossible, fleeing on foot is the only way to cross the border.
(snip/...)

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-mideast-fighting-border-crossing,0,2213724.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

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Colombia to Evacuate Citizens in Lebanon
By Associated Press

August 8, 2006, 9:45 PM EDT


BOGOTA, Colombia -- Colombia will send a plane to evacuate more than 100 of its citizens fleeing the fighting in Lebanon, a senator helping to organize the mission said Tuesday.

"We're going to get more than 100 Colombians in the war there and bring them directly to Colombia," said Sen. Jairo Clopatofsky.

The Colombians are expected to travel overland to the Syrian capital of Damascus from Lebanon. With the help of the air force, a plane will leave Wednesday to pick up the citizens in Syria.

The mission will also deliver some 650 pounds of medicine to be transported into Lebanon.
(snip/...)

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-colombia-lebanon-evacuation,0,4443133.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

[Critters2]

1. A mother of one of my parishioners has fled Beirut for Damascus

Says it was a harrowing trip.

[maddezmom]

2. duplicate topic

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2443939