Westerners Continue Their Exodus From Muslim West Beirut

BEIRUT — The exodus of Westerners from predominantly Muslim West Beirut continued today after a pro-Libya terror group said it executed British journalist Alec Collett in revenge for the U.S. attack against Libya.

Also today, police defused a bomb consisting of 33 pounds of incendiary material and two pounds of TNT outside a British cultural center in West Beirut, authorities said.

In a quickly organized operation, seven French nationals were escorted from the anarchy-plagued streets of West Beirut to the relative calm of the capital’s Christian sector by Muslim militiamen.

French, Irish, British and American nationals have fled West Beirut since the U.S. bombing of Libya on April 15 and the execution two days later of two Britons and an American by the pro-Libyan Arab Fedayeen Cells. The group said it killed the three to avenge the raid and Britain’s role in it.