Syrians Fire Rockets at Beirut Passenger Ship

Syrian gunners fired 120 rockets today at the only passenger vessel that serves the Christian enclave, wounding seven people on the wharf and causing the ship to flee for Cyprus, police said.

It left behind hundreds trying to escape the artillery war that has killed 779 people and wounded 2,104, by police count, in five months.

The sea route to Cyprus is the only link to the outside for the 1 million Christians of the 310-square-mile enclave, sealed on the other three sides by Syrian soldiers, guns and tanks.

A police spokesman said the Syrians opened up with truck-mounted multiple rocket launchers soon after midnight as the hydrofoil Santa Maria docked at Jounieh, a Christian port 12 miles north of Beirut.

“Arriving passengers had just disembarked, and departing passengers were gathered on the dock to board the vessel when the rocketing started,” said a spokesman for the Jounieh Port Authority.

Tony Mansour, spokesman for Santa Maria’s agents in Larnaca, Cyprus, said rockets began exploding around the ship before the crew had unloaded the baggage of 120 passengers who got off at Jounieh.

Only eight of the 300 waiting passengers had boarded when the Santa Maria sailed away, and six of the eight passports still were in the hands of Jounieh port officials.