DAMASCUS/RIYADH, 15 July 2006 — Saudi tourists have been forced to look for alternative ways to leave Lebanon and enter Syria following the Israeli bombing of the main highway running between Beirut and Damascus in the Dahr Al-Baidar region of Lebanon early yesterday morning.

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah gave directives to the Saudi Embassy in Beirut to help Saudi nationals evacuate the city by finding them necessary transportation at the government’s expense.

The embassy has provided several buses for Saudi families for transit to Syria. Saudi Ambassador in Beirut Abdul Aziz Khawjah said yesterday that buses were leaving the embassy grounds every half hour.

An official at the Saudi Embassy in Damascus told Arab News that there are other routes, though longer, that Saudis can take to leave Lebanon and enter Damascus. “They can take the mountain road that passes behind Zahlé, 45 km east from Beirut, to reach the Lebanese-Syrian borders,” said the official.

Thousands of Gulf citizens, including a large number of Saudi families, who had come to Beirut to spend their summer vacation have already evacuated the city taking whatever road they could to move out of the country.

According to Saria Naim, a Syrian teacher, Saudis can leave Lebanon using Marjeyoun Road. “We used the Marjeyoun Road which runs between Damascus and Beirut before the highway was built,” said Naim, pointing out that “although the road is a difficult one it works.”

Away from Beirut toward Tripoli in Al-Arida region in northern Lebanon, tourists were able to cross the Lebanon-Syria border and reach Homs. From Homs travelers can either take the Aleppo International Airport in the east or the International Airport in Damascus toward the south.

The Saudi Embassy also reports that Saudi Airlines is working to increase flights from Syria to Saudi Arabia. An airline employee contacted by Arab News said that many Saudi tourists were trying to return to the Kingdom from Damascus without reservations.

“They’re registering their names in the flights and waiting until they are lucky enough to find seats,” she said. “There are currently 13 flights a week to Jeddah, Riyadh and Dammam.”

Most of the earliest Saudi-bound flights out of Damascus were booked as of yesterday afternoon.

Southern Beirut was a ghost town yesterday as people remained indoors fearing more bombs would fall on the city. The city was without electricity.

“My fiancé’s family moved out from their house in the south of the city to a relative’s house in Al-Hamra, up north,” said Shadi Zaantoot, a Beirut resident, in a phone interview with Arab News.

Shadi described the situation on ground as “chaotic.” He said his family has been without electricity for an entire day now.

“Many citizens are loading their trucks or cars whatever they can and are moving out of their homes to safer areas,” he said. “We felt the pounding of some of the bombs in our homes, particularly those which hit the airport. But the houses of relatives who live in the south got the worst of it. Windows were shattered from the power of the blasts.”

Businesses and stores have been shut down for the past two days as citizens feared another offensive would be launched in retaliation for the rockets fired into Israel by Hezbollah militants yesterday morning.