13 More Americans Heed Order, Leave Lebanon by Ferry

Thirteen Americans arrived in Cyprus on Tuesday after following orders by the U.S. government to leave Lebanon, but some vowed to return when the violence subsides.

“I hope to go back to Lebanon soon. . . . I left my house just the way it was,” said Lois Ann Swenson, of Boscobel, Wis., who arrived with her husband, Leonard, in this southern port.

The couple said they were sad to leave Christian East Beirut after running an orphanage for 31 years.

“We were worried, and it was a good idea to get out,” Swenson, 63, said as he and his wife walked off the ferry that brought them on the eight-hour trip from the Christian port of Juniyah north of Beirut.

President Reagan last week ordered Americans to leave Lebanon by Feb. 27, citing a series of recent kidnapings of Americans and other foreigners in Muslim West Beirut.

At least 35 Americans have since left Lebanon for Larnaca, but several hundred more are believed to remain in West Beirut.

Among the missing foreigners are Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite, who had been trying to negotiate with Islamic extremists for the release of American hostages. A Shia Muslim leader has said he believes Waite has been “arrested” by the hostages’ captors.