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| Iraq |
| Iraqi militants move nurses to hospital basement |
| 2014-07-01 |
| The 46 Indian nurses trapped in Iraq were evacuated on Monday night to the basement of their hospital as Iraqi helicopter gunships chasing militants rained bombs in one of the most fierce battles to control the city of Tikrit. Ironically, the nurses were moved to the basement kitchen by none other than the militants, when the hospital compound and surroundings came under heavy bombardment after sunset. The Tikrit Teaching Hospital, where the nurses are holed up, has become the latest theatre of war after the militants occupied the buildings and fired guns to celebrate the militants' declaration of the caliphate of a new Islamic State in lands seized this month across a large swathe of Iraq and Syria. After bombs hit portable houses occupied by Bangladeshi workers outside the hospital and flames spread, a couple of militants came into the nursing quarters and sat with them. 'He promised we will not be harmed and moved us to the basement,' said Marina M Jose, who made a desperate call to Khaleej Times from the hideout. She said she talked to Ambassador Ajay Kumar who told them to remain in the basement till the bombing is over. She said the ambassador, with the aid of Google map, was asking Iraqi officials to stop targeting the building where the nurses are lodged. Reality has begun to bite as the nurses are also faced with near-starvation in an enclave in the wilderness of Iraq’s civil war. Amid questions who is in charge of Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, the nurses who came to Iraq chasing their dreams, spent two consecutive days minus breakfast. They managed with a few pieces of biscuits and water and cooked some kanji (rice soup) with the last grains they had, for dinner on Sunday night. “We were not sure about another bite for the rest of the day and were desperately calling the PR boy, who came past 2pm with some rice, rajma beans, chickpeas, milk powder and tea powder,” one of the nurses told Khaleej Times. Asked about dinner and breakfast, she said the boy had given “two pieces of thick quboos, one for dinner and one for tomorrow’s breakfast”. The boy also told them to be “very, very careful with food” as markets are mostly closed and life remains grim in the besieged city. Tikrit, which had been witnessing fierce battles between government forces and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), mostly remained without power and water. “We do not have drinking water anymore. The boy had managed to salvage some bottles of water from another building and this is the last drop of potable water available inside the hospital compound,” the nurse said. “Nights are sleepless with no air-conditioning and the summer temperatures touching extreme degrees. To beat the heat, we lie down on wet bed linen and wear wet cloths at night. When the cloths dry up after a while, we soak them again,” she explained. With the crisis worsening with each passing day, she fears that the frustration would gradually explode in anger and hysteria. “On Sunday night, scores of militants fired in the air for hours from nearby buildings. We desperately called the PR boy who said these are celebratory gunfire. He wouldn't explain further.” “We were unsure who occupied the hospital terraces. Were they government forces celebrating a recapture of the city? Were they the militants or their sympathisers celebrating the Isil’s declaration of the caliphate?' she had initially wondered. 'With the latest round of bombings, it has become clear that we are now in the hands of the militants.' When Khaleej Times last spoke to them, the nurses were moved back to their quarters as the militants wanted to break fast and pray in the basement. Marina said that as reported in the media, the embassy has delivered some financial assistance on Sunday. “Each of us received 10,000 Iraqi dinars with instructions to safe-keep and not to tell anyone.” She said it’s equivalent to Rs500, just enough for onetime top-up of the phone credit. The embassy also topped up credits for 10 needy nurses on Monday. |
| Posted by:Steve White |