CRPF commandos to guard Baghdad embassy

New Delhi: India has deployed an elite contingent of its commando-trained armed paramilitary personnel to guard its embassy and diplomatic staff in Baghdad in Iraq, a war-ravaged country getting back to normal after defeating ISIS terrorists. About 45 multi-skilled troops, drawn from the country's largest Central Armed Police Force (CAPF), the CRPF, have taken charge of the embassy complex located in the Al Mansour area of the Iraqi capital, sometime ago.

The contingent has taken charge in Iraq and the troops celebrated their first Republic Day and hoisted the tricolour in that country on January 26, official sources told PTI.

The squad is led by a Deputy Commandant-rank officer of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and this is the second foreign assignment for the paramilitary as it similarly guards the Indian Embassy in Libya's capital city of Tripoli for the last few years, they said.

India has, on February 4, revised its 'no travel' advisory to Iraq and has said that citizens can now travel to the war and insurgency ravaged country as the security situation has "improved".

The advisory, issued by the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi, allows Indians to travel to any part of the country for work or business except five provinces of Nineveh (capital Mosul), Salahuddin (capital Tikrit), Diyala (capital Baquba), Anbar (capital Ramadi) and Kirkuk. PTI