ALBANIA: TIRANA: HELICOPTERS HELP EVACUATE STRANDED US CITIZENS UPDATE

Описание: (14 Mar 1997) English/Nat

The U-S military has for the time being suspended its airlift evacuations from Albania after gunmen on the ground fired at American and Italian helicopters.

Helicopters have so far evacuated hundreds of foreign nationals from the U-S embassy and a sports stadium near the Italian embassy.

And the crew of a German evacuation helicopter opened fire on armed men in two police vans who were firing at a crowd near the chopper.

In what looked like an American invasion of their own embassy, helicopters landed in the grounds to help evacuate stranded U-S citizens.

Three of the U-S military helicopters landed in the compound on the outskirts of the capital where most embassy employees live.

Their mission was to ferry out Americans and Albanians with permanent residence in the United States to a ship waiting in the Adriatic Sea between Albania and Italy.

Families gathered for their documents to be processed before boarding the transport helicopters, which could take about 50 people at a time.

The grey Marine Chinook helicopters used had "S-FOR" markings, showing they were from the NATO-led peace force in nearby Bosnia.

During the airlift, gunmen with heavy weapons - apparently anti-aircraft guns - fired from hills outside Tirana in the direction of U-S compound.

An Italian chopper was hit, but there were no injuries.

This prompted the Americans to put the military airlift on hold.

Even before the operation was temporarily suspended, it was a tense affair, with dozens of Marines guarding the compound.

The military said it gave priority to Americans wanting to board.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"We're evacuating American citizens and some third country nationals. The priority of course goes to the American citizens and our allies. Today we've evacuated approximately 160 people. As of right now, there are between 80 and 100 waiting to be evacuated, and yesterday we evacuated 51 people."
SUPER CAPTION: First Lieutenant Bill Darrenkamp, U-S military spokesman

Earlier in the day, two Italian military helicopters and a British chopper landed in a sports stadium to lift to safety a large group of evacuees.

Native Albanians had joined people from both the Italian and Russian embassies, converging on the capital's main soccer stadium.

Guarded by Italian soldiers, the Chinook helicopters landed in the stadium, about 500 metres (yards) from the Italian embassy.

The father of 6-year-old Dhespina Buda is desperate to get her out of the country so she can be treated for rheumatoid arthritis.

He was turned away from boarding the Italian helicopters but managed to get on a British helicopter later.

About 125 people in total managed to get on board.

They were taken to Brindisi in southern Italy.

Armed men have opened fire on a German helicopter evacuating civilians from a military airport on the outskirts of the Albanian capital Tirana.

The men, in a convoy of two armoured police vehicles, drove around the air base firing as hundreds of German, Swiss and Austrian nationals were waiting to be air lifted to safety Friday.

The crew of the German evacuation helicopter returned fire to try and deter the gunmen.

It's not known who the armed men were.

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