Fourteen Kazakh Nationals Taken Away From Combat Zone in Iraq

Fourteen nationals of Kazakhstan, including three women and 10 children, have been taken away from the battle zone in Iraq, Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokesman Anuar Zhainakov told Sputnik Friday.

ALMATY (Sputnik) – Those escaped are currently in Iraq and are preparing for evacuation, according to Zhainakov.

The spokesman stressed that Kazakh diplomats in the country’s embassy in Jordan had been carrying out the necessary measures for the Kazakh citizens’ evacuation.

The news coes after Russia’s Chechen Republic leader Ramzan Kadyrov said Thursday that six Russian and six Kazakh nationals had been evacuated from the Iraqi city of Tal Afar as part of a humanitarian operation. Kadyrov noted that the location of six other Russian citizens had been determined as Iraqi Kurdistan.

The evacuation was carried out amid the military offensive of the Iraqi government forces aimed at retaking Tal Afar near the Iraqi-Syrian border. The Iraqi army said over 300 Daesh militants had been killed and 31 districts of the city had been liberated since the start of the operation on August 20.

After the liberation of Mosul, Tal Afar became the major stronghold of Daesh miitants in Iraq. The city has been under control of the militants since mid-2014. Before the seizure, it was home to 750,000 people.