Russia and other countries are carrying a massive evacuation campaign to take their nationals out of Lebanon, where Israel has been hitting Hizbollah targets since militants of the Islamist organization killed eight Israeli soldiers and abducted two others in a cross-border raid last week.
"Five planes [operated by] the Emergency Situations and Transportation ministries, as well as commercial air carriers, have evacuated to Russia those who wanted to leave the Middle East conflict zone. The most recent plane took off at 11.05 a.m. Moscow time [7:05 GMT] from [Syrian airport] Latakia, with about 350 people on board," ministry spokesmen said.
They did not say, however, if any more emergency flights would be carried out in the days ahead.
