Linthicum, Md. ? The first Americans evacuated from battle-scarred Lebanon arrived home Thursday, tired but relieved to put behind them terrifying nights of heavy bombings and house-shaking explosions.

“It’s the grave of the Middle East, that’s what I call it now, if they keep going this way,” said Amal Kazzaz, of Richmond, Va., who had been visiting relatives in Lebanon when fighting erupted between Hezbollah militants and Israel.

About 150 people were aboard the Omni Air International DC-10 that landed at 6:30 a.m. at Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport outside Washington. The airport is expecting as many as seven more flights, and a Maryland Emergency Management Agency spokesman said three of them were tentatively scheduled overnight.

Officials said an estimated 8,000 of the 25,000 U.S. citizens in Lebanon wanted out, and about 2,600 have been evacuated since Sunday. Many have been transported to Cyprus, with the State Department arranging chartered flights to the United States.

Many of those on the plane said they were Lebanese-Americans who had been visiting family or friends in Lebanon.

“Everybody was so glad and really pleased to be back home, because as soon as you were on the plane you felt like you were relieved,” said Sami Lahan, of Detroit, who returned from Beirut with his wife and daughter.