Evacuation of Canadians from Lebanon

Canada Poised to wind down Lebanon evacuation operation

By Matthew Fisher

CanWest News Service:

BEIRUT – Canada’s evacuation effort in Lebanon will end Saturday, giving stranded citizens a last chance to escape the violence and turmoil that has gripped the country for more than two weeks.

While it was difficult to gauge how many Canadians still wished to leave Lebanon and how many had left on their own, there was a feeling that demand for the evacuation program was diminishing, said Lt.-Col. Shane Brennan, who has run the evacuation effort here from the Canadian Embassy.

About 1,400 Canadians boarded four chartered vessels in Beirut on Thursday bound for Cyprus and Turkey where air craft were to take them to Canada.

This brought to more than 11,700 the number of Canadian citizens who have left Lebanon with Canada’s help.

Canada has been the last western country still assisting its citizens to get out of Lebanon on chartered ships for several days now.

As the country closes one of Lebanon’s last links with the outside world, Israel’s security cabinet sent mixed signals Thursday about the direction of its ongoing war against Hezbollah.

Israel announced the call-up of three more army combat divisions while at the same time saying it did not intend to expand its current ground operations against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

The seven-member security committee made the decision a day after nine Israeli soldiers died when they were ambushed by Hezbollah fighters just inside the Lebanese border.

The call-up of reservists was required “to prepare us for all options,” the Israeli Defence Forces top general, Dan Halutz, told a news conference. He described the damage already inflicted on Hezbollah as “huge.”

As Israel stepped up its air campaign Thursday with attacks against targets in the Bekaa Valley, as well in border areas, Hezbollah responded by launching about 50 more rockets into Israel.

Although resistance from Hezbollah has been greater than expected, and Israeli infantry, armour and artillery units have had trouble operating in southern Lebanon’s hilly, broken terrain, support for how the government of Ehud Olmert was handling the crisis remained strong. A poll in the ‘Maariv” daily newspaper found 82 per cent of Israelis back the current Offence and 95 per cent Israel had responded correctly to Israel’s abduction of its soldiers.