THIRUVANANTHAPURAM — Nearly 50 Indian nurses who were abducted by suspected militants in Iraq have been released and will soon be flown home, an Indian official said on Friday. The nurses, all from the southern Indian state of Kerala, were being moved from the northern city of Mosul to the city of Erbil, some 80 km away, said P. Sivadasan, an aide to Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. Sivadasan said both he and Chandy spoke to some of the nurses by phone. The 46 nurses were stranded in a hospital in the militant-controlled city of Tikrit for weeks but were moved on Thursday against their will, India's Foreign Ministry said. “They are all safe and we're trying to get them back at the earliest,” said Chandy, who met Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in New Delhi to discuss the nurses' predicament. The nurses were held in a building in Mosul on Thursday night, where they were given food, said C.C. Joseph, father of two of the nurses, Sona and Veena, after speaking to them. – Reuters
