Military Actions Later; Obama Opts for ‘Political Change’

US President Barack Obama sent advisers to the war-torn Iraq with the aim of finding a ‘political solution’ to the crisis. Addressing the press after deliberations with his national security team, Obama said that the military actions the US had earlier targeted would only be explored later, if only it deemed necessary.

He also said that the US troops that he had withdrawn at the end of 2011 would never return to Iraq for combat.

With ‘political solution’ in view Obama told Iraq Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to take steps to solve the sectarian rift in the country. Some US officials said that the shi’ite Prime Minister’s positive involvement in this regard was one of the reasons behind the present tension.

Indians are safe: Sushama

Meanwhile, Indian External Affairs Minister Sushama Swaraj said that the 40 kidnapped Indians in Mosul are safe and their locations had been identified.

“They are all safe and are lodged in two locations- a cotton mill and a government building,” External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told the family members of some of the kidnapped Indians from Punjab who met her in the presence of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

“We are making all-out efforts to ensure that all Indians return safely. We are leaving no stone unturned and whosoever is to be contacted, we have activated all of them. We guarantee to bring them back the moment there is normalcy there,” she later told reporters.

interactive editor