India evacuates more Indians from Iran, Israel

New Delhi: India on Tuesday evacuated 292 citizens from Iran and 366 nationals from Israel amid escalating tensions between the two countries following the US bombing of three Iranian nuclear sites. With the fresh batch of evacuees from Iran, India has brought back 2,295 Indians from the Persian Gulf nation so far. India brought back 161 Indians in a chartered flight from Amman that landed at 8:20 am. The Indians were moved from Israel to Jordan through land border crossings. Another group of 165 Indians were flown back to New Delhi from Amman in a C-17 military transport aircraft. They were received at the airport by Union Minister L Murugan.

Two-hundred-ninety-two Indian nationals were evacuated from Iran on a special flight that arrived in New Delhi from Mashhad at 3:30 am, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said. Sharing details about India's evacuation mission Operation Sindhu that was launched following fresh wave of hostilities between Iran and Israel, he said, "2,295 Indian nationals have now been brought home from Iran". Two-hundred-ninety Indian nationals and one Sri Lankan were evacuated from Iranian city Mashhad on a special flight last night. India launched Operation Sindhu last week to bring back Indians from Iran and Israel in view of increasing hostilities between the two nations. Israel and Iran have fired hundreds of missiles and drones at each other's cities and military and strategic facilities since the hostilities began over a week back. The tensions escalated significantly following the US bombing of three major Iranian nuclear sites on Sunday morning. India has evacuated its nationals on chartered flights operated from the Iranian city of Mashhad, the Armenian capital of Yerevan and the Turkmenistan capital of Ashgabat since Wednesday. Iran lifted airspace restrictions on Friday to facilitate three chartered flights from Mashhad. The first flight landed in New Delhi late on Friday with 290 Indians, and the second one landed in the national capital on Saturday afternoon with 310 Indians. Another flight arrived from the Armenian capital city of Yerevan on Thursday. A special evacuation flight from Ashgabat landed in New Delhi on Saturday morning.