The families of the members of Mojahedin Khalq in Camp Liberty can now get news about their loved ones on the following hotline:
00964-7809174160
Families can also contact UN authorities responsible for Camp Liberty through:
irqaascp@unhcr.org
We would appreciate it if human rights organisations and others inside and outside Iran could provide this information to the families of the residents of Camp Liberty.
Translated by Iran Interlink
Update No. 12
Update on the situation of residents of the Hurriya Temporary Transit Location
• UNHCR strongly condemns rocket attacks of 29 October 2015 which hit several precincts in the vicinity of 
Baghdad International Airport, including the Hurriya Temporary Transit Location (TTL) (also known as Camp Liberty). The impact on the Hurriya TTL resulted in the deaths of more than 20 residents and dozens of others were taken to hospitals for treatment of injuries sustained in the attack.
• Following the attack the High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres made the following statement: “This is a most deplorable act, and I am greatly concerned at the harm that has been inflicted on those living at Camp Liberty. Every effort must continue to be made for the injured and to identify and bring to account those responsible.”
• UNHCR and the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) have been working since 2011 to find relocation opportunities outside Iraq for residents of the Hurriya TTL. These people formerly resided at Camp Ashraf (also known as Camp New Iraq). Approximately 2,160 of this group remain in the Hurriya TTL.
• UNHCR considers that all residents of the Hurriya TTL who are registered with UNHCR are persons of concern to UNHCR. They are entitled to protection against expulsion or forced movement to any place where their lives or freedom would be threatened. The Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of Iraq and the United Nations explicitly recognizes that residents benefit from the principle of non-refoulement.
• Working with States and its partners UNHCR has supported the relocation of more than 900 residents to safe third countries since 2011. The solutions being delivered by UNHCR are current with more than 260 residents relocated since July 2015. Arrangements are in place to relocate in excess of 200 more people by the end of 2015.
• UNHCR deeply appreciates the measures taken by some countries already to relocate residents to situations of safety and security. Albania’s exceptional contribution to this humanitarian endeavor merits special note. These measures contribute greatly to international efforts to find solutions for this group of people.
• UNHCR urgently renews its calls upon governments of other countries to find ways to offer long term solutions for the residents who remain at the Hurriya TTL. If long term solutions cannot be made available immediately, the urgent need to relocate the residents would justify an extraordinary evacuation to a safer temporary platform from where they could be permanently relocated to a third country. UNHCR stands ready to assist states in achieving this objective.
• This appeal for help should be read in light of the potential for more attacks on the Hurriya TTL. As well as the attack of October 2015, residents of the Hurriya TLL suffered three rocket attacks in 2013, each of which resulted in deaths and injuries. There was also an attack on Camp New Iraq in September 2013 which left 52 dead and seven persons missing. The latest attack demonstrates that the current conflict and generalized violence across Iraq leaves residents of the Hurriya TTL open to significantly heightened security risks and it emphasizes the need for a quick and pragmatic action on the part of States to ensure that these people are relocated to a situation of safety and security.
• UNHCR continues to call upon the Government of Iraq to take all possible measures to ensure the safety and well-being of residents, including ensuring access to life saving medical treatment.
UNHCR
Geneva, 30 October 2015
For decades the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia have been trying to take advantage of the chaotic situations created by civil wars. They did this by training and equipping proxy forces. The result of this catastrophic tactic has so far been huge casualties and loss of lives in the region.
One of the most instrumental proxy forces used against the Iranian Government is the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ the Cult of Rajavi). The group itself has made too much effort to gain the support of the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia although its hostility towards the Islamic Republic seems to be convincing enough for the Saudis and Zionists.
The MKO in its turn gives enough credit to its supporters for their warmongering agendas in the Middle East including Yemen, Syria, and Iraq.
For the time being, the US is fighting a complicated proxy war in Syria. According to the New York Times, “Insurgent commanders say that since Russia began air attacks in support of the Syrian government, they are receiving for the first time bountiful supplies of powerful American-made antitank missiles.” [1]
The propaganda media of the Cult of Rajavi publishes the news of US-Saudi backed forces of the ISIS and other insurgents in Syria and Yemen reporting their alleged progress, every day. The Cult of Rajavi cannot conceal its happiness of the recent visit between the US Secretary of State and his counterpart in Saudi Arabia because they might go on the same path to back the MKO against the Islamic Republic, some day.
The MKO’s propaganda accuses the Islamic republic of intervening in the internal affairs of the countries in the region while it is cheering the US and Saudi for their military and financial aid to fighting rebels and terrorists in the region.
Change will definitely come to nations in different ways but not by a destructive cult with a dark history of terror against civilians and violation of human rights against its own members. Furthermore, since this group is hated by Iranians due to its treason during the eight year war with Iraq and collaborating with Saddam, it does not have any place among people of Iran. [2]
An October 7, 2015 hearing before the US Senate Committee on Armed Forces (SASC) titled, “Iranian Influence in Iraq and the Case of Camp Liberty,” served as a reaffirmation of America’s war mongers’ commitment to back the terrorist MKO.
During the hearing, former US Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, former US Marine Corps Commander and former Supreme Allied Commander Europe General James Jones, USMC (Ret.), and Colonel Wesley Martin, US Army (Ret.) provided testimony to back the MKO terrorists. [3]
The Bangkok based American journalist Tony Cartalucci writes, “All three witnesses made passionate pleas before a room full of nodding senators for America to continue backing not only MEK terrorists currently harbored on a former US military base in Iraq, but to back groups like MEK inside of Iran itself to threaten the very survival of the government in Tehran.” [4]
Cartalucci lists the MKO’s violent attacks:
”Admissions to the deaths of the Rockwell International employees can be found within a report written by former US State Department and Department of Defense official Lincoln Bloomfield Jr. on behalf of the lobbying firm Akin Gump in an attempt to dismiss concerns over MEK’s violent past and how it connects to its current campaign of armed terror – a testament to the depths of depravity from which Washington and London lobbyists operate.
“To this day MEK terrorists have been carrying out attacks inside of Iran killing political opponents, attacking civilian targets, as well as carrying out the US-Israeli program of targeting and assassinating Iranian scientists. MEK terrorists are also suspected of handling patsies in recent false flag operations carried out in India, Georgia, and Thailand, which have been ham-handedly blamed on the Iranian government.” [5]
He also confirms the MKO’s cult-like attitude referring to Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow Ray Takeyh who described the group a “cult-like organization” with “totalitarian tendencies.” [6]
Cartalucci criticizes the speakers of the hearing, “Not once is any of this backstory mentioned in the testimony of any of the witnesses before the senate hearing, defiling the memories of those who have been murdered and otherwise victimized by this terrorist organization. The de-listing of MEK in 2012 as a foreign terrorist organization by the US State Department is another indictment of the utter lack of principles the US clearly hides behind rather than in any way upholds as a matter of executing foreign policy.”[7]
Once more, Cartalucci warns about the notorious policy paper “Which Path to Persia? Options for a New American Strategy toward Iran” that eagerly discussed the potential of the MKO as a proxy force against Iran, in 2009. [8]
Belen Fernandez of Al Jazeera criticizes the double standards of the West on terrorism. She announces the Islamic Republic as victim of terror. “While Iran is portrayed in Western and Israeli circles as a relentless supporter of terrorism worldwide, the conference focused on a less politically convenient reality: that of Iran as a victim of terror,” she states. As an enlightened journalist who has interviewed victims of the MKO terror attacks in Tehran, Fernandez condemns the US’s hypocrisy on the issue of terrorism. ”Indeed, when it comes to terrorizing people, the “land of the free” beats the Islamic Republic, hands down. But the victory goes largely unreported in mainstream circles because double standards have become standard operating procedure.” [9]
Mazda Parsi
References:
[1] BARNARD, ANNE& SHOUMALIOCT, KARAM, U.S. Weaponry Is Turning Syria Into Proxy War With Russia, The New York Times, October 12, 2015[2] Cartalucci, Tony, The Mujahedeen e-Khalq (MEK): The US Prepares to Back a New Terrorist Army in Iran, Prelude to a Wider War?, Land Destroyer, October 10, 2015
[3] ibid
[4] ibid
[5] ibid
[6] ibid
[8] ibid
[9] Fernandez, Belen, When it comes to terrorising people, the US beats the Islamic Republic, hands down, Aljazeera.com, September 08, 2015
Barrage of rockets slammed late Thursday, October30, 2015 into a former military base near the Baghdad International Airport called Camp Liberty that houses as a temporary transit location the MEK members,killing three Iraqi soldiers, officials said.It is said that 27 of the Camp residents died in the attack.
Iraqi police said 16 rockets hit Camp Liberty, a former U.S. base that now houses Mujahedeen-e-Khalq. They said at least 16 soldiers guarding the camp were also wounded while the Iranian group, known as MEK, said dozens of MEK members were wounded as well.
++ Twelve more Camp Liberty residents have been transferred to Tirana bringing the total in the last twenty days to 144. In the past two weeks, nine of them have separated from the MEK.
++ Farsi comments on the report of UN Special Rapporteur on Iran, Ahmad Shahid, this week have welcomed the fact that although he spoke with MEK representatives in Geneva, they have not been able to influence his report. Shahid’s report does not reflect any of the MEK’s views. They wanted to feed him violence and regime change, but his report showed the vast distance between the MEK and genuine human rights advocates. In interviews Shahid said he had spoken with the Iranians in Geneva about the excessive number of executions, noting that most are drug related. He also welcomed the lifting of sanctions as a positive move for human rights.
++ This week AP reported that Maysam P will appear in court in Germany on charges of spying against the MEK. The MEK had reported this on their own websites before the AP report and named the individual as Maysam Panahi, which suggests they had prior knowledge of the case. Panahi is a former member of the MEK who escaped Camp Liberty in 2012 and was transferred to Germany by the UNHCR. Massoud Khodabandeh wrote in Facebook that ‘irrelevant to those who hold the MEK’s leash, it is clear that if anyone wanted to infiltrate the MEK to get information to pass to Iranian Intelligence services, they would certainly not spend years running away from the organisation and would, from the start, have stayed with them. It is as though a person who needs to find something in one particular room, packs up their belongings and moves to another city!’ Khodabandeh pointed out that ‘if those holding the leash believe that this kind of publicity which paints the MEK as victims will bring a higher price for them to be laid on the table for payment, they are vastly mistaken. The MEK is no longer a card to be played, it is finished. Even then, if, for some reason, they believe that Iranian Intelligence are completely mad or insanely stupid and are still interested in finding internal news on the MEK, then the logical suggestion would be for them to find an infiltrator inside the MEK in Auvers sur Oise rather than somebody who risked their life to escape the MEK and get to safety.’
In English:
++ Dalia Mae, Gumshoe News, ‘Destabilizers for Hire at Camp Liberty’. An article ridiculing the 7th of October (2015) Committee on Armed Services US Senate Hearing which heard testimony on the Iranian Influence in Iraq and the case of Camp Liberty. “And guess who was chairing the committee – John McCain…” In the meeting Joseph Lieberman iterated a typical Neoconservative misconception about Iran, the MEK and its currency as an opposition: “…And here’s the point I want to make about the National Council of Resistance of Iran and other democratic opposition groups that are Iranian. We ought to be supporting them. This regime in Tehran is hopeless. It’s not going to change. There’s no evidence it’s going to — every piece of evidence is the contrary. So, I hope we can find a way — we used to do this, not so long ago, supporting opposition groups in Iran. They deserve our support, and actually they’re a — they would constitute a form of pressure on the government in Tehran that would unsettle them as much as anything else we could do, because it would threaten the survival of the regime, which, from every objective indicator I can see, is a very unpopular regime in Iran.”
++ Habilian Association issued a report on the 2nd International Congress on 17000 Iranian Terror Victims featuring the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and a number of high administrative officials which was held on August 31, 2015. The report said, “Iran has the right to demand members of MKO from other countries and international organizations as they have committed crimes in Iran.” MKO’s extradition to Iran is an inevitable task and the group’s betrayals and crimes are to such a level that Iran must take all necessary measures to deal with the group …”
++ Mazda Parsi in Nejat Bloggers writes ‘Massoud Rajavi dead or alive? Who cares?’ in response to the testimony of retired Colonel Wesley at the Senate Armed Forces Hearing. Parsi writes, “whether Massoud Rajavi is dead or alive is definitely critical to two main groups not to the lobbyist or lawmakers. The first group who absolutely want to know about Rajavi’s whereabouts are victims of the terrorist acts of the MKO. Thousands of Iranian families are victims of the MKO’s blind mortar attacks, bombings and assassinations, as well as Iraqi Shiites and Kurds whose uprising was suppressed by the MKO – as Saddam’s Private Army – in 1991.
“The second group includes members of the Cult of Rajavi who lost years of their lives, isolated from the free world, under the manipulative cult-like system of the group or who are still taken as hostages in the cult. Families of the MKO hostages also suffer the cruelty of the MKO leaders, particularly Massoud Rajavi who first created the system of abusive and torturing of its members in the cult.
“Victims of Massoud Rajavi await his “appearance” because he should be brought to justice for the atrocities he committed against his own followers, and civilians in Iran and Iraq.”
++ “Rockets near Baghdad airport kill soldiers, Iranian refugees
“BAGHDAD (AP) — A barrage of rockets slammed late Thursday into a former military base near the Baghdad International Airport that houses an Iranian refugee group, killing three Iraqi soldiers, officials said. The Iranian exiles said at least 20 of their people died in the attack.
“Iraqi police said 16 rockets hit Camp Liberty, a former U.S. base that now houses the exiled Iranian opposition group known as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq. They said at least 16 soldiers guarding the camp were also wounded while the Iranian group, known as MEK, said dozens of Iranian refugees were wounded as well.”
++ According to Press TV “In an interview with Fars news agency on Friday, Wathiq al-Battat, the leader of Iraq-based Mukhtar Army, claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks [on Camp Liberty].
++ Iran Interlink commenting on the attack on Camp Liberty accuses Massoud and Maryam Rajavi of personal responsibility for the deaths. Their ideology can be stated simply as ‘shed blood for publicity’. Their refusal to allow the residents of the camp in Iraq to be taken to safety by international agencies in spite of themselves claiming such an attack was inevitable demonstrates their culpability for the deaths of the victims.
Iraqi Militia Attacks MeK Camp, Killing 26
Yesterday’s attack on the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MeK) base at Camp Liberty, a strike which killed 26 people, has been claimed by the al-Mukhtar Army, a Shi’ite militia active in the ongoing war against ISIS. The group says they’d warned the MeK to leave Iraq as soon as possible, and promised more attacks if they don’t.
The Camp Liberty base has been wildly controversial in Iraq, as the MeK, primarily an Iranian opposition faction, was an ally of the Saddam Hussein government ousted in the 2003 US invasion. At the time, the MeK was still listed as a terrorist organization in the US, but the group was left in the camp irrespective of this, pending some eventual resettlement that never came.
The MeK’s status as a Saddam ally, and it’s continued hostility toward the Iranian government, a close ally of the current Iraqi government, has made it a common target for Shi’ite factions in the country, and militias like the al-Mukhtar Army are given increasingly free reign with the growing ISIS war.
Though the militia was quite clear about having carried out the attack themselves, the MeK issued a statement blaming the Iranian government for the attack. The US issued a statement condemning the attack and vowed to support the relocation of the MeK to some other place.
by Jason Ditz,
Iraqi militia have threatened more attacks following a rocket barrage that killed at least 26 people at an opposition camp near Baghdad. UN chief Ban Ki-moon has condemned the attack.
Camp Hurriya (Liberty), a former US military base, has housed members of the People’s Mujahedeen Organisation of Iran (PMOI) since 2012, a group that had fought alongside Saddam Hussein’s forces in the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.
On Thursday at least 15 rockets crashed in and around the camp near Baghdad’s international airport killing more than two dozen people.
Iraqi joint operations command spokesman Yahya Rasool said investigation is underway and that two Iraqi soldiers were wounded in the attack. An abandoned truck mounted with rocket tubes had been recovered in Bakriya, north of the camp, he said.
"The people behind this attack are terrorist criminals who want to destabilize the country," Yasol told Reuters news agency, without specifying any group or nation.
Shiite militia warns of further attacks
A Shiite Muslim militia in Iraq has claimed responsibility for the attack – the deadliest in years – that targets the Iranian opposition.
"We warned the members of this terrorist organization to leave Iraq as soon as possible … If they don’t do so, there will be more similar attacks," al-Mukhtar Army commander Wathiq al-Battat was quoted as saying by Iran’s Fars news agency.
The PMOI stands accused by rights groups of taking part in the brutal suppression of a 1991 Shiite uprising against Saddam Hussein, making it widely reviled by members of Iraq’s own Shiite Arab majority, which came to power after the US-led Iraq invasion in 2003.
EU, UN, US line up to condemn attack
UN chief Ban Ki-moon "condemns the attack… on Camp Hurriya, near the Baghdad International Airport, which left at least 26 residents dead and many more wounded," the general secretary’s office said Friday in a statement.
"This is a most deplorable act, and I am greatly concerned at the harm that has been inflicted on those living at Camp Liberty.” the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said. "Every effort must continue to be made for the injured and to identify and bring to account those responsible."
US Secretary of State John Kerry said efforts to relocate the members – in the works for years – should be accelerated.
"No matter the circumstances, on this point we remain absolute: the United States remains committed to assisting the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in the relocation of all Camp Hurriya residents to a permanent and safe location outside of Iraq," Kerry said in a statement.
“It is crucial that the Iraqi government fully investigate the incident and immediately step up security at the camp in line with its duty of protection of the camp residents under the December 2011 agreement with the United Nations,” the EU’s external affairs office said in a statement.
PMOI had been delisted as a ‘terror organization’
Until a few years ago, PMOI — also known by its Farsi name Mujahideen-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) — was listed as a terrorist organization by both the US and the European Union.
Shahin Gobadi, a PMOI spokesman, accused "agents of the clerical (Iranian) regime inside the government of Iraq" of launching the attack and also placed responsibility on the Iraqi government and the United Nations.
The group, which critics have described as a cult, enjoys a well-connected network of former and current officials who advocate on its behalf.
Following an intensive lobbying campaign, it succeeded in being removed from the US and EU terror lists.
But around 3,000 remaining dissidents at Camp Hurriya are still waiting to be relocated to other countries.
Massoud and Maryam Rajavi are personally responsible for the deaths of 25 residents along with several Iraqi soldiers during a katyusha attack aimed at Camp Liberty yesterday. Maryam Rajavi’s only response has been to say ‘we warned you repeatedly this would happen’.
In the context of real events in Iraq this sounds more like a wish than a warning. What Rajavi does not reveal is that, in spite of fears of exactly the kind of attack she has repeatedly looked forward to, she and her husband have consistently refused to allow the MEK members to leave Iraq and take refuge in third countries. Since 2003, successive Iraqi governments have ruled the MEK’s presence in Iraq unconstitutional and have worked with the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross, Iraq’s ministry of human rights and the Iranian embassy in Iraq to find a safe and peaceful way to remove all the MEK from Iraq. With the principle of non-refoulement accepted by all other parties as the basis of this programme, only the MEK leaders refused to cooperate.
Even when the resident’s families and even the MEK’s own lobbyists in the West like Rudi Giuliani, John Bolton, Brian Binley and Struan Stevenson, have tried to rescue the individuals trapped in the MEK camps in Iraq, the Rajavis have time and time again refused to let them go or to let them be helped. Even though many individuals who managed to escape the camps have made their way to safety in Europe. Even though millions of refugees fleeing Syria and Iraq have made their way to Europe. Even though the UN negotiated a safe haven in Albania to which it is slowly but surely transferring the remaining residents of Camp Liberty. If Rajavi had allowed these people to leave five years ago, these tragic deaths would not have occurred.
The MEK has many enemies in Iraq. As part of Saddam Hussein’s repressive apparatus and known as ‘Saddam’s Private Army’, the Rajavis and their MEK are responsible for the deaths of over 25,000 Iraqi citizens. In this context we may never discover who launched yesterday’s or any previous attacks on the MEK in Iraq. What we can state with absolute certainty, however, is that the Rajavis caused these deaths because in spite of giving ‘repeated warnings’ they refused to allow these vulnerable individuals to be taken to safety. They deliberately left them in harms way.
It should now be clear to everyone that the reason behind Massoud Rajavi’s insistence on keeping people in Iraqi is not because these aging and sick people are involved in a struggle against Iran. It is because of the ideology which he created after being released from prison in 1979 and began acting as the MEK’s spokesman. This ideology is simply expressed as ‘kill for publicity’. From 30th June 1981, the Eternal Light operation in 1988, the self-immolations in Europe in 2004 and the repeated attacks on Camps Ashraf and Liberty in Iraq, in all these cases Rajavi has caused deaths in order for an MEK spokesman to have a media interview and cry victim. The result is simply the continued survival of the MEK brand. The cost is counted in the lives of people who could easily be helped. These are not martyrs to a cause, they are victims of Rajavi’s vanity. Camp Liberty is nothing more than a blood bank waiting to be spent by Rajavi.
At least 20 members of the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) have reportedly been killed in an 
incident during which a barrage of rockets was fired at their camp in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
Iraqi police confirmed that at least 15 rockets had slammed into Camp Hurriyet (Camp Liberty) near Baghdad International Airport on Thursday night, AFP reported.
“Fifteen rockets were fired from Bakriya around and on the edge of Camp Liberty,” the Baghdad Operations Command said.
This is while the terrorist group has reportedly said that 23 of its members were killed and that two dozen others were wounded in the attack. The group also claimed that some 80 rockets had rained down on the camp.
Three Iraqi soldiers guarding the camp were also killed and at least 16 others wounded during the rocket attack, according to Iraqi police.
In an interview with Fars news agency on Friday, Wathiq al-Battat, the leader of Iraq-based Mukhtar Army, claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks.
In December 2011, the United Nations (UN) and Baghdad agreed to relocate some 3,000 MKO members from Camp Ashraf, now known as Camp New Iraq, to Camp Hurriyet, a former US military base.
The last group of the MKO terrorists was evicted by the Iraqi government in September 2013 and relocated to Camp Hurriyet to await potential relocation to third countries.
The MKO is listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community and has committed numerous terrorist acts against Iranians and Iraqis.
In 1986, the terrorist group’s members fled Iran for Iraq, where they received now-executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s support and set up Camp Ashraf near the Iranian border.
A barrage of rockets slammed late Thursday into a former military base near the Baghdad International Airport that houses an Iranian refugee group, killing three Iraqi soldiers, officials said. The Iranian exiles said at least 20 of their people died in the attack.
Iraqi police said 16 rockets hit Camp Liberty, a former U.S. base that now houses the exiled Iranian opposition group known as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq. They said at least 16 soldiers guarding the camp were also wounded while the Iranian group, known as MEK, said dozens of Iranian refugees were wounded as well.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
The statement from Mujahedeen-e-Khalq said that “due to darkness of the night, the exact number of dead and wounded has not been established.”
Police said that there may be casualties among the exiled group, but noted they did not report them to the local authorities so they could not determine how many civilians were hit in the attack. The MEK statement on casualty figures could not be independently verified because of the late hour of the attack and the camp’s inaccessibility to media.
A police official added that the rockets landed far enough from the airport that they did not disrupt commercial traffic. A hospital official confirmed the casualty figures. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
This was not the first attack since Camp Liberty became home to the Iranian group, which is strongly opposed to Iran’s clerical regime. Last year, the Islamic State group was said to have fired rockets near to Baghdad International Airport as it attempted to destabilize the capital.
Members of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq were welcomed into Iraq by Saddam Hussein in the 1980s during the brutal war with neighboring Iran. Their fortunes turned sharply with the Iraqi dictator’s toppling in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
Iraq’s current Shiite-led Iraqi government, which has strengthened ties with Tehran, considers their presence in the country illegal.
The group regularly reports worsening health conditions within their isolated camp and accuses the Iraqi government of neglect and human rights abuses.
VIVIAN SALAMA,
Associated Press writer Murtada Faraj contributed to this report from Baghdad.
