Iraq to dispatch aid convoy to Bahrain
After the first convoy of Iranian activists set sail towards Bahrain to show solidarity with the people there, Iraq plans to send a humanitarian convoy to the Persian Gulf state.
Iraq’s National Committee for the Support of People in Bahrain announced on Monday that the convoy -- including Iraqi medical staff, medical supplies and food stuff -- will leave the southern port city of Basra, located 445 kilometers (277 miles) southeast of the capital Baghdad, on board a ship named Roqayah, Fars News Agency reported.
The Iraqi committee added that the move is aimed to show solidarity with physicians, nurses and paramedics who have been detained, suspended, and even tortured for treating individuals who were injured during anti-government protests in Bahrain.
On Monday, the first Iranian solidarity convoy, compromising one hundred and twenty Iranian activists, set sail towards Bahrain to condemn the violent crackdown by Saudi-backed Bahraini forces on anti-government protests.
“The convoy’s main ship has been named Ayat al-Ghermezi after deceased Bahraini poetess and the other one is named Arc of Salvation,” Head of the Islamic Revolution Supporters Society Mahdi Eqrarian said.
Al-Ghermezi, who had slammed Bahrain’s ruling regime in her poems, was arrested and raped by Bahraini security forces in April. She later passed away at an army hospital.
Since the beginning of Bahrain’s revolution, thousands of anti-government protesters have poured into the streets across the country, calling for an end to the rule of the Al Khalifa dynasty.
According to local sources, dozens of people have been killed and hundreds arrested so far during the government clampdown on the peaceful demonstrations.
Amnesty International says it is concerned about the fate of missing activists in Bahrain and the fact that detained protesters are being tortured there with impunity.
Source: presstv.ir
