The Iraqi people want the anti-Iranian terrorist group Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) to be expelled from Iraq, a member of the Iraqi parliament member said on Sunday.
In an interview with the Fars News Agency in Baghdad, Iraqi MP Hussein Ali said, “In the past, the group has been responsible for several crimes against the Iraqi people, including the people of Iraqi Kurdistan.”
“Cooperating with the repressive Baathist army, the members of the group killed innocent people, and Iraqis suffered very much during the Saddam era. Thus the Iraqi government is determined to expel the group from its soil,” he added.
The Iraqi MP dismissed the reports published by Western and Israeli media outlets claiming that Iran is pressuring the Iraqi government to expel the group, saying, “Iran has the right to be sensitive about the terrorist group in its neighborhood because the MKO has carried out many terrorist attacks against the Iranian nation. However, the Iraqi government’s decision to expel the group has not been made under any pressure from neighboring countries.”
Backed by the U.S. and some European countries, the MKO started its activities as a terrorist group based in Iraq in the early 1980s. In addition to the assassination of hundreds of Iranian officials and citizens, the group cooperated with Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime in its repression of the Iraqi people.
Recently, following orders of the government and in line with the new Iraqi Constitution, the Iraqi army tried to dismantle the terrorist group’s residential area, called Camp Ashraf, but the MKO members residing in the camp clashed with the Iraqi soldiers.
Afterwards, the MKO tried to exaggerate the incident and said that 25 people were killed during the clashes.
The Iraqi Constitution states that the country has no place for terrorist groups, especially those which attack neighboring countries.