Seoul: A South Korean military transport aircraft carrying 204 nationals and seven foreign nationals from Saudi Arabia arrived in Seoul on Sunday evening. This marks the first use of a military plane for evacuation since the Middle East conflict began last month.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the KC-330 Cygnus multirole aerial tanker landed at Seoul Air Base in Seongnam at 5:59 p.m. The operation, dubbed "Desert Shine," was initiated due to the increasing conflict between U.S.-Israeli forces and Iran, which has resulted in thousands of South Korean nationals being stranded in the Middle East due to flight disruptions. The evacuees had been staying in countries such as Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia before traveling to Riyadh to board the aircraft.

The group included more than 140 individuals from Saudi Arabia, 24 from Bahrain, 14 from Kuwait, and 28 from Lebanon. Among the foreign nationals on board were two Japanese, one American, one Australian, one New Zealander, one Irish, and one Filipino.

Seoul had requested assistance from at least 10 countries to secure flight routes for the safe return of the military aircraft from Riyadh. While many Koreans managed to return home from the UAE and Qatar through commercial and chartered flights, others remained stranded elsewhere in the region, prompting the need for military intervention.

Efforts to arrange commercial flights through negotiations with airlines and relevant parties in Saudi Arabia proved challenging, leading to the decision to deploy a military aircraft for evacuation due to safety concerns. This operation marks the seventh instance of military aircraft being used to evacuate South Korean citizens from conflict zones abroad, with the last such airlift occurring in 2024 during the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.