US organized a flight out of Beirut as Americans seek to leave Lebanon, says State Dept

PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo by Omri Greenberg via Unsplash

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States organized a flight from Beirut to Istanbul on Wednesday to allow Americans to leave Lebanon amid the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.

Miller told a press briefing that around 7,000 U.S. citizens in Lebanon had registered with the U.S. government to receive information about leaving the country, although not all of those are looking for assistance to leave.

The flight on Wednesday had a capacity of about 300 and carried around 100 Americans and their family members, Miller said, adding Washington had been working with airlines since Saturday to make seats available to Americans on commercial flights.



(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis, Kanishka Singh and Simon Lewis; Editing by Chris Reese)