Scenes of jubilation in India's Kerala state.

Relatives and friends crowd the international airport in Kochi city to see their loved ones once again.

Forty six nurses, who were working in Iraq and abducted by suspected Islamist militants have finally come home.

For weeks, they'd been stranded in a hospital in the city of Tikrit, which had been taken over by ISIL rebels in fierce fighting with the Iraqi government.

Many thought they wouldn't make it back alive.

. (SOUNDBITE) (English) ANOTHER NURSE ABDUCTED IN IRAQ, MARINA (NO SURNAME GIVEN) SAYING:

"Two days back we really felt disturbed and we were thinking about our family. Now, finally I have reached here I am so happy because I saw my children and they are also very happy. If I wouldn't have come, they would have become orphan.

(Q. Did you ever imagine that you will come back?)

A. No, I never imagined. I thought I will never come back. I thought, (in), last two days I am finished. The