October 17, 2000
Web posted at: 10:11 AM EDT (1411 GMT)
CAIRO, Egypt (Reuters) -- Aid flights headed to Baghdad from Egypt and Bahrain on Tuesday, the latest of several such flights in recent weeks to protest against U.N. sanctions on Iraq.
An Egyptian aid plane carried a medical team and about 100 doctors, businessmen, artists, intellectuals and journalists, Egypt's official Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported.
It was the second protest flight from Cairo within a week.
Bahrain sent a plane carrying about 70 people, food and medical supplies, Bahraini Shura council member Ali Mohammed al-Mussalam told Reuters.
He said the head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Ali Fakhro, who heads a national committee formed to help the Iraqi people, was leading the delegation.
"The plane is carrying around 20 tonnes of food and medical supplies. It will return to Bahrain tonight," Mussalam said.
"This will be called the 'Intifada (Uprising) Trip' to assist the Iraqi people against sanctions imposed on Iraq," he added.
An EgyptAir plane, bearing the name of a 12-year-old Palestinian boy shot dead by Israeli forces, had carried toys, medicine, gifts and school supplies to Baghdad on Wednesday.
The planes are the latest of several sent to Baghdad by Arab and non-Arab countries opposed to crippling U.N. sanctions imposed after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
Baghdad International Airport was symbolically reopened on August 17 for the first time since 1990.
The United Arab Emirates last month became the first Gulf Arab country to join aircraft going to Iraq to protest the sanctions.