The Russian cargo plane comprises medical equipment, tents, cooking utensils and blankets for Syrians displaced from eastern Ghouta (AFP)
France and Russia have dispatched a plane carrying humanitarian aid to the ravaged former Syrian rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta, retaken by government forces in April after a five-year siege.
A Russian Antonov 124 military cargo plane carrying 50 tonnes of medical aid and humanitarian supplies left the airport at the central French city of Chateauroux at 3 am (0100 GMT) on Saturday, the airport's head Mark Bottemine said.
Undertaken as part of a UN Security Council resolution, "the aim of this project is to enable civilian populations better access to aid," a joint Franco-Russian statement said.
The plane is heading for Russia's Hmeimim air base in the west of Syria. It is the first joint humanitarian aid operation between Russia and a western country.
This latest shipment of aid will be distributed on Saturday under the supervision of the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid (OCHA), the AFP news agency reported.
"Humanitarian assistance is an absolute priority and must be distributed in accordance with principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence across all Syrian territory without exception, where international humanitarian law must be fully respected," the joint statement said.
France had secured "guarantees" from Russia that the Syrian regime would not obstruct the distribution of the aid, and that it would not be misappropriated or diverted for political purposes, the foreign ministry said.
More than 1,700 civilians were killed during the Syrian regime's operation in Eastern Ghouta in March and April. According to the Russian military, more than 160,000 people, both military and civilians, were evacuated from the region.
The cargo comprises medical equipment, tents, cooking utensils and blankets, said an AFP photographer who witnessed the plane being loaded.
The medical aid aimed at some 500 people who have been seriously injured and the 15,000 others who have lighter injuries during the fighting in Eastern Ghouta, on the fringes of the Syrian capital Damascus.
Evacuated rebels arrive in north
Meanwhile, hundreds of rebels and their families evacuated from southern Syria after a deal was struck with the regime came Saturday in the country's northwest, an AFP correspondent said.
The evacuations from Quneitra, which borders the illegally Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, came after a Russia-brokered agreement was reached earlier this week to see rebels hand over the territory to the Syrian regime.
Around 50 buses transporting fighters and their families reached the Morek transit route in the north of Hama province, which links regime and rebel-held territories, an AFP correspondent at the scene, said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based activist group, said the first convoy to reach Morek transported around 2,800 people.
They were to be transferred to other buses run by local NGOs, before travelling further north to temporary camps in rebel-held areas in Idlib and Aleppo provinces, the Britain-based monitor said.
"More than half of the evacuees are women and children," said Observatory head Rami Abdurrahman. "A second wave of departures is expected from Quneitra."
Regime forces backed by Russia have continued their campaign in Daraa, aiming to retake areas still controlled by the Islamic State group.
On Friday 11 children were among 26 civilians killed in air strikes which hit several towns in the area, the Observatory said, while raids continued on Saturday.
Russia-US cooperation
In other developments, Moscow has put forward plans to Washington to cooperate on the safe return of refugees to Syria, the Russian ministry of defence said on Friday, days after a summit between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.
"Specific proposals on how work could be organised to ensure that refugees can return home have been sent to the American side," General Mikhail Mizintsev, a senior ministry official, said in a statement.
The proposals "take into account the agreements reached by the Russian and American presidents during their meeting in Helsinki" on Monday, he said.
Trump and Putin announced they had reached several points of an agreement following their first bilateral summit in the Finnish capital, but did not provide further details.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also confirmed on Friday this had been part of the presidents' talks.
Syria's conflict has killed more than 350,000 people and displaced millions since it began in 2011 with a brutal government crackdown on protesters.
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