Haggard residents emerge from ruins of Lebanon town

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2006

BINT JBEIL, Lebanon (AFP) — Wild-eyed doctors with long beards and haggard elderly villagers emerged from the ruins of the flashpoint Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil Monday to welcome the first contact from the outside world in almost three weeks.

The first Red Cross convoy, along with a scattering of journalists, rolled in to evacuate casualties from the devastated border town which had been caught up in fierce fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah guerrillas.

At the sight of the rescue teams arriving, dazzled elderly villagers ventured out of their homes to meet the town's first newcomers since clashes cut it off from the rest of the world nearly three weeks ago.

A clearly terrified elderly man carrying a small child rushed to the rescue teams,...