Sen. Anusart Suwanmongkol says buses transported the pilgrims from Suvarnabhumi airport to the U-Tapao naval base on Sunday. From there, they are to fly on an Iran Air flight arranged by the Iranian Embassy to Saudi Arabia.
The pilgrims arrived in Bangkok from Thailand's Muslim-majority southern provinces on Tuesday, hours before anti-government protesters took over Suvarnabhumi, forcing the country's main gateway to shut down.
Thai Muslim leaders warned that a failure to assist the pilgrims could damage relations between predominantly Buddhist Thailand and Saudi Arabia. -- AP