Around 50 Indian nurses forced onto buses in Iraqi militant stronghold: Indian officials

By Sruthi Gottipati NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Nearly 50 Indian nurses from the southern state of Kerala have been taken against their will from a hospital in the militant-controlled city of Tikrit in Iraq, India's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday. The nurses were forced to board buses, Foreign Ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin told reporters at a briefing, but he declined to say who had ordered them aboard or where they were headed. This is a situation where lives are at stake." A senior aide to Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who spoke to the nurses on Thursday, told Reuters that "militants" had forced the nurses to vacate the hospital and board two buses. Tikrit, the birthplace of former President Saddam Hussein, has been the site of fierce fighting this week as Iraqi troops battle to regain control of the city from al Qaeda splinter group the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).



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