By Sarp Ozer
KAYSERI, Ankara (AA) - A Turkish military plane on a mission to evacuate Turkish citizens from conflict-torn Sudan landed safely at an airport despite gunfire, Türkiye's national defense minister said on Friday.
"As part of plans to evacuate our citizens, one of our C-130 aircraft landed at Wadi Seidna Airport, north of (the capital) Khartoum. There was gunfire from light arms during the landing of our second plane. Despite this, our plane landed safely," Hulusi Akar told reporters in the Kayseri province.
There were no casualties, he stressed
"Our team examined the damage to the plane, and we believe we can repair it by teams we send from here," he added.
Türkiye on Thursday deployed five military transport planes, including two A400M aircraft, to evacuate its remaining citizens from Sudan.
Earlier Friday, the Turkish National Defense Ministry announced that a Turkish C-130 evacuation plane, which was headed to Wadi Seidna Air Base for the evacuation, came under small arms fire.
Meanwhile, the first group of Turkish citizens was safely brought to Türkiye by planes belonging to the Turkish Armed Forces early Friday.
*Writing by Diyar Guldogan