Updated at 4:25 p.m. with contributed statements from Brian Terrell.
An Iowa man is among six U.S. citizens reportedly arrested in Bahrain today during protests.
According to a Voices for Creative Nonviolence press release, Brian Terrell, of Maloy, was arrested by Bahraini security in Manama Tuesday as he participated in a peaceful protest on the one year anniversary of the uprising in Bahrain.
The release said Terrell is a peace activist and co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, a group based in Chicago, Ill. that nonviolently resists U.S. war-making. Terrell also lives and works at Strangers and Guests Farm in Maloy, the release said.
According to the press release, Terrell and the other U.S. citizens were observers with Witness Bahrain, a movement that aims to have civilians monitor and report the situation on the ground in Bahrain. They were marching towards the Pearl Roundabout as part of a peaceful protest Tuesday when officials arrested them, the release said.
The group is to be deported, the release said. Terrell is set to speak at the Iowa City Public Library, 123 S. Linn St., on Feb. 22 at 7:30 p.m., according to the event’s Facebook page.
According to the Associated Press, authorities fired tear gas at the protesters and arrested at least 25 people.
A friend posted updates from Terrell on the event’s Facebook page this week, and gave permission for publication.
“Friends, I am well. The brutality of the police is breathtaking, as is the hospitality and courage of our hosts,” Terrell wrote in an update posted early Tuesday. “Yesterday…in the afternoon we were in a van being pelted with tear gas canisters.”
In a more recent post, Terrell said he and the five other U.S. citizens made it to London for connecting flights back to the United States.
“We are well, tired, anxious for friends left behind, thinking of what to do next! Thank you for solidarity, love, prayers,” he wrote.
