Russia sent a large airlift freight plane to Syria to evacuate its remaining citizens as the threat of a US strike against the Damascus regime continued to loom, Moscow said Sunday.
Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry made the plane available for any Russians or citizens of the former Soviet Union still in the country who want to leave, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported.
“An Il-76 plane took off for Latakia on Sunday morning,” ministry spokeswoman Irina Rossius said. “The plane will carry both Russians and citizens of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) from Syria.”
According to the report, last month Russia flew 90 people, mostly women and children, out of Syria on a Ilyushin Il-62 airliner adding to over 700 Russian and former Soviet citizens who have bolted the country since the beginning of the year.
Earlier in the year, the country, which has backed the regime in Damascus, evacuated a military base near Latakia.
Later this week the US congress is set to vote on whether or not to authorize a limited strike on Syria in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack last month that Washington blames on the Damascus regime.
Stuart Winer
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