Abduction in Iraq: India Weighs All Options

The Ministry of External Affairs in India has taken all steps to trace and rescue the 40 Indians who, as the Ministry had on Tuesday confirmed, has been abducted in Iraq. External Affairs Minister Sushama Swaraj said that all efforts are underway in this regard. The workers who are said to have been kidnapped hail from the northern states of India, especially from Punjab. The Ministry will seek the help of all international bodies including the UN Mission in Iraq. India had sent former Iraq envoy Suresh Reddy to the violence-hit region to explore options. Also efforts have been made to keep in touch and bring back 46 nurses who are stranded in Tikrit.

Iraq Battles the Militants

Meanwhile, Iraqi government forces battled Sunni militants for control of the country’s biggest refinery on Thursday as Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki waited for a US response to an appeal for air strikes to beat back the threat to Baghdad.

The sprawling Baiji refinery, 200 km (130 miles) north of the capital near Tikrit, was a battlefield as troops loyal to the Shi’ite-led government held off insurgents from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and its allies who had stormed the perimeter a day earlier, threatening national energy supplies.

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