Videos on social media
showed troops from Iran-backed Iraqi IMIS in Khuzestan while the Fatemiyoun
Division, made up of Afghan nationals, were sent to Lorestan's Poldokhtar in western Iran.
The Fatemiyoun has been
designated as a terrorist organization by the US Treasury. Locals believe that
these forces have been sent to quell protests.
Ahvaz MP Ali Sari told Iran's IRNA that he does
not know which Iranian authority has coordinated with Iran-backed IMIS to enter
Khuzestan.
Agents of the IRGC Intelligence
Organization arrested at least 11 Arab-Iranian volunteers as they were trying
to help people in Iran’s flood-stricken village of Gurieh, Khuzestan Province,
according to Karim Dahimi, a London-based minority rights activist.
On April 7, 2019, nine of them were arrested
as they arrived from the city of Mahshahr, said Dahimi, who spoke with the
Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) on April 10.
“Today, I was informed that a group of young
Arabs in the city of Hamidiyeh wanted to take food items and blankets to the
flood victims but they were stopped by the security forces,” Dahimi said.
Dahimi said he did not have
information about their identities or places of detention but added that two
other rescue workers, Ahmad Ka’bi and Yaghoub Ka’bi (relation unknown), were
detained the following day in the same village.
“Ahmad and Yaghoub Ka’bi were helping with
rescue operations when they were arrested for unknown reasons,” Dahimi told
CHRI.
“According to information from
our friends in the village, the Arab youths wanted to distribute food and other
goods they had collected for the victims but there was an argument with the
authorities and they got arrested.”
According to Dahimi, both had previously
advocated minority rights in Shushtar.
Since late March 2019, flash floods have
claimed at least 77 lives and injured more than 1,000 people, the head of Iran’s
Emergency Medical Services, Pir-Hossein Kolivand, told Parliament
on April 9.
