A Minnesota man is working to bring Americans home from the Middle East
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Since the war in the Middle East broke out, a Minnesota man has been working tirelessly to bring Americans home.
Aswar Rahman is back home in St. Paul now after spending more than a week in Israel. He says he spent the majority of his time in the main airport there, Ben Gurion International.
"It's a very chaotic situation when it comes to trying to get home from Israel," Rahman said. "I know what it's like to have one flight canceled on you, so to have four and five, and meanwhile there's missiles coming in toward the airport."
Rahman sought out stranded Americans to give them information about an escape option he helped set up through his humanitarian organization, The American Service.
"There's a safe border crossing that goes from northern Israel into Jordan and then there's an international airport that can take you home very fast," he said.
Rahman says dozens of people rode shuttles he arranged into Jordan, and he lost count of how many crossed over on their own using his information.
"They told me it's just nice to know there's someone here to help," Rahman said. "You look around and there weren't any embassy officials, the airlines had all packed up and left, and I'm just this one guy."
Rahman says there are more Americans still trying to get home.
"We need more people to know this is an option, because otherwise we're going to face even more chaos and suffering at the airports in Israel," he said.
Rahman urges anyone who knows someone having trouble leaving Israel to email him at mail@aswar.us for help.
