Passengers from the first French civil flight to land in Baghdad since sanctions were imposed on Iraq will leave the country in the coming days by road, a diplomatic source said Sunday.
"They will leave Iraq by road via Syria or Jordan to return to France," a diplomat speaking on the condition of anonymity told AFP.
"They will depart in the coming days in little groups, bound for Syria and Jordan from where they will fly on to France," he said.
A French plane carrying 70 doctors and athletes, landed in Baghdad's Saddam International Airport Friday despite strong US condemnation.
The aircraft had left Paris after France ignored a UN sanctions committee request to delay the departure of what organizers insisted was a humanitarian flight.
It was the first flight from France to Iraq since the Security Council imposed an embargo on commercial air traffic on Iraq on September 25, 1990. However, the permanent members of the council disagree over the extent of the ban.
On Saturday, members of the delegation visited a primary school and a shelter in the Amiriya district of Baghdad where almost 400 civilians were killed during an air raid by the US-led coalition in the 1991 Gulf War.
The bombing was the "most odious crime of our century", delegation spokesman Jihad Fighali was quoted as saying by Iraqi newspapers Sunday - BAGHDAD (AFP)
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