Indian nurses in Iraq are being freed: Oommen Chandy

“The nurses are being taken to the Erbil airport," said Chandy adding that they are set to return to India.

Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan, is located about 60 km from Mosul, the insurgent stronghold which the nurses reached on Thursday night after being forced out of their hospital in Tikrit.

The Chief Minister said over telephone from New Delhi where he is camping that the latest development took place due to the efforts of the Kerala and the Central Government.

Chandy expressed confidence about the safe return of the nurses after meeting External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj earlier during the morning hours on Friday.

“I am quite confident that we can bring back our nurses from Iraq," he told reporters earlier. "A high-level crisis management group under the leadership of Sushma Swaraj has been formed. They will be doing everything to see that the nurses are brought back safely," said the Kerala Chief Minister.

Chandy requested the media not to go overboard while reporting the crisis involving the nurses, all belonging to Kerala. "I cannot divulge all the details," added the Minister.

It may be mentioned here that the 46 nurses were put in a bus from Tikrit on Thursday afternoon in the company of armed militants and driven to Mosul, where they reached late at night. On Friday morning, they were given food and allowed to speak over the telephone to their families in Kerala.

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900 Indians were given tickets to leave Iraq, nurses arrived safely

इराक से निकलने के लिए 900 भारतीयों को दिया गया टिकट, नर्से सुरक्षित

विदेश विभाग के प्रवक्ता सैयद अकबरुद्दीन ने कहा है कि इराक से बाहर निकलने के लिए 900 भारतीय नागरिकों को हवाई जहाज का टिकट दिया गया है। इसके साथ ही उन्होंने कहा है कि इराक में केरल की सभी नर्से सुरक्षित हैं।
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ISIL created the Islamic State, Al-Baghdadi made the 'Caliph'

ISIL ने बनाया इस्लामिक स्टेट, अल बगदादी बना 'खलीफा'

इराक और सीरिया के बड़े भू-भाग पर कब्जा जमा चुके सुन्नी आतंकवादियों के संगठन ‘इस्लामिक स्टेट इन इराक एंड लीवेंट’ (आईएसआईएल) ने खुद को एक नई सत्ता का ‘इस्लामी राज्य’ घोषित करते हुए अपने सरगना अबू बक्र अल बगदादी को खलीफा का दर्जा दिया है।
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Ministry of External Affairs Officer working to help our Indian in Iraq

इराक में भारतीयों की मदद में जुटे हमारे अधिकारीः विदेश मंत्रालय

इराक में फंसे भारतीयों की वापसी में लगे विदेश मंत्रालय के अनुसार इराक में भारतीय अधिकारियों ने अपने स्तर पर भारतीयों से संपर्क साधना शुरु कर दिया है. वे जरुरतमंद भारतीयों की कागजी कार्रवाई तथा टिकट दिलवाने में सहयोग कर रहे हैं ताकि वे स्वदेश लौट सकें
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Kerry arrives for NATO talks on Ukraine, Iraq

Shortly after flying in on a US military plane from northern Iraq, Kerry met with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton as well as other European partners and "discussed the grave security situation in Iraq."

  

They also talked about "efforts to de-escalate tensions in Ukraine and efforts to support the political process in Libya," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

  

With crises boiling over in Ukraine and Syria, the Sunni jihadist offensive in northern Iraq has added new urgency to an already packed NATO agenda, with ministers also due to discuss efforts to wind down the war in Afghanistan.

  

"As everybody knows this is a very critical time for Iraq," Kerry warned in Arbil on Tuesday as he met with Kurdish leaders to discuss the onslaught by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

  

His talks came as the first of up to 300 US military advisers began their mission in Baghdad to help the Iraqi army, which has wilted in face of the militants' seizure of a swathe of northern Iraq.

  

Kerry briefed European allies from Germany, France, Italy and Britain on his trip "to Baghdad and Arbil and expressed strong concern about the threat posed by ISIL," Psaki said.

  

He also attended a dinner of foreign ministers from the 28-member alliance.

  

US President Barack Obama announced earlier this month that the US will scale back its troops in Afghanistan to 9,800 before withdrawing them completely by the end of 2016.

  

That will shape plans by other NATO members who have forces in Afghanistan on how many troops to leave in the country, with a top US official predicting a total force of around 12,000.

  

But NATO's formal meetings, which open on Tuesday, are set to be "very, very focused on the situation in Ukraine," the official told reporters.

  

The ministers would discuss the implementation of new Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's peace plan, "the ceasefire efforts, and also efforts to negotiate with eastern players," the official said, asking not to be named.

  

The White House on Wednesday welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin's call to his lawmakers to revoke his authorisation to invade Ukraine.

  

White House spokesman Josh Earnest however said Washington, which has threatened further sanctions on Moscow, wanted to see clear evidence of a change in Russian behaviour.

NATO, Iraq, John Kerry, US military, White House

Kerry arrives for NATO talks on Ukraine, Iraq

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Militants blitz through Iraq's western desert

The latest military victories including two border posts captured on Sunday, one along the frontier with Jordan and the other with Syria considerably expanded territory under the militants' control just two weeks after the al-Qaida breakaway group began swallowing up chunks of northern Iraq, heightening pressure on al-Maliki to step aside.

   

The lightening offensive by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant takes the group closer to its dream of carving out an Islamic state straddling both Syria and Iraq. Moreover, controlling the borders with Syria will help it supply fellow fighters there with weaponry looted from Iraqi warehouses, significantly reinforcing its ability to battle beleaguered Syrian government forces.

   

If the Sunni insurgents succeed in their quest to secure an enclave, they could further unsettle the already volatile Middle East and serve as a magnet for Jihadists from around the world much like al-Qaida attracted extremists in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

   

President Barack Obama, in an interview with CBS' "Face the Nation" aired yesterday, warned that the Islamic State could grow in power and destabilize the region. Washington, he said, must remain "vigilant" but would not "play whack-a-mole and send US troops ... wherever these organizations pop up."

   

US Secretary of State John Kerry, in the Jordanian capital on Sunday, also weighed in. The Islamic State, he warned, is a "threat not only to Iraq, but to the entire region."

   

The US is looking for ways to work with Middle Eastern nations, most of them led by Sunni governments, to curb the Sunni militant group's growth. Officials in the United States and the Middle East have suggested privately that al-Maliki must leave office before Iraq's Sunnis will believe that their complaints of marginalization by the Shiite-led government in Baghdad will be addressed...

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Listen situation in Iraq witnesses Commendation

इराक गए कुछ भारतीय लौट आये हैं. इन लोगों ने विद्रोहियों के खूनी खेल को अपनी आंखों से देखा है. क्या कुछ हैं इराक के हालात सुनिए चश्मदीदों की जुबानी. 

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