Indian school children hold play cards as they pray for safety of Indians stranded in Iraq, in Ahmedabad, India.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Nearly 50 Indian nurses who were abducted by suspected Islamist 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 (50 miles) away, said P. Sivadasan, an aide to Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. Sivadasan and Chandy both spoke to some of the nurses by phone.

Officials at India’s foreign ministry were not immediately available to comment on the status of the nurses.

The nurses were abducted earlier this month from a hospital in the militant-controlled city of Tikrit in Iraq.

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