First U.S. Beirut evacuees arrive home

BALTIMORE, July 20 (UPI) -- The first 150 U.S. evacuees from besieged Beirut arrived home on a flight to Baltimore Thursday, with seven more evacuation flights expected.

The Omni Air DC-10 arrived at the Baltimore-Washington International/Thurgood Marshall Airport at 6:30 a.m., after flying from Cyprus to Manchester, England, WBAL-TV, Baltimore reported.

The next flight was expected around midnight.

Gov. Robert Ehrlich said Maryland was chosen by the federal government to be the lead state for returning evacuees, and Christopher McCabe, state secretary of human resources said Maryland was helping the evacuees with transportation, food, clothing and communications, WHAG-TV, Hagerstown, Md., reported.

About 8,000 of some 25,000 U.S. citizens in Lebanon were trying to flee the aerial bombardment of Beirut by the Israeli air force.

Hostilities broke out nine days ago when Hezbollah militants kidnapped two Israeli soldiers and began firing missiles into northern Israel.