WASHINGTON, July 20: A US amphibious assault ship took aboard more than 1,000 people and departed Beirut without incident Thursday in the first major military-run evacuation of US citizens from Lebanon.

US Marines went ashore on landing craft in small numbers from the USS Nashville to load up Americans gathered in the port. A Pentagon spokesman said the marines played no larger role in the evacuation.

The commander of US naval forces in the region, however, said the marines were being used ‘to give us that kind of flexibility and adaptability to respond to the situation, regardless of the risk involved’.

“What you should take away from ... what you see on the beaches of Beirut now is the amount of power that we are able to bring to a situation, the amount of risk we are willing to take when American citizens’ lives are on the line,” Vice Admiral Patrick Walsh said in an interview with CNN.

Admiral Walsh said the US military has enough forces deployed to deal with foreseeable contingencies, but would not say whether plans are being made for an airlift of Americans from southern Lebanon.

An estimated 300 to 500 American citizens are stranded in the south, the site of repeated Israeli air strikes and Hezbollah missile launches on Israel.

“If we need more (help), it is lined up back home in the United States, it’s lined up in the Pacific to flow here if we need it. We’ll just evaluate the situation on the ground real-time, and we’ll call on those capabilities if required,” Admiral Walsh said.—AFP