AKI

Zari Al-Fahad Al-Asadi, senior member of Governor’s office in Diyala province, said: "citizens of this province will never forget crimes of the MKO during the uprising of Shaabanieh in the south and Kurds’ uprising in the north in 1991; their operation was performed by the assistance of Saddam regime."

"People of Diyala have repeatedly asked for the expulsion of this group from the province but Americans refuse to accept it," he added.

In response to the comments of MKO representatives, published in Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, Al-Asadi told a PUK reporter that: "On their comments that 132000 Iranian agents are working in important Iraqi posts, government and parliament should respond. But as far as the governor office of Diyala is concerned, I should stressed that residents of Camp Ashraf are still involved in terrorism and they support anti-government rebels and give them shelter. This organization has close ties with terror groups. This organization, unlike the claims of Noroozi, is not in financial crisis and even rewards its supporters with millions of dollars."

"Ashraf residents continue political activities and they have been able to attract pro-Baathists. They cooperate with some former intelligence officers and some tribes. They have established so-called "Diyala’s Salvation Association", headed by former governor "Abdullah Jaboori," he added.

He also said that: "This group claims that it enjoys political refugee status, but I say that it’s a sheer lie. We have asked the government and parliament to expel these people from our country but the US obstructs our requests."

"This regime has a long history of cooperating with the former regime and no one can forget their role in suppression of uprising in the south and killing the people of Kalar and Kafra. They still hold conferences and welcome terrorists. They claim that their camp has school and hospital and that it has served local residents for the past 20 years, but I should say that no one has access to their remorse camp. The simplest reason is that Saddam’s secret agents who work with this group have warned the residents that no one should near the camp because they are familiar with Farsi (the language of MKO members) and this may lead to the leakage of intelligence.

He stressed the requests of people of Diyala and called for the expulsion of MKO members from Iraq, saying: "We ask for the expulsion of this group from Iraq because we are living in the neighborhood of Iran and establishing good relations with Iran benefits us. Not supporting this group means no interference in other countries’ internal affairs and we don’t want our soil to become a haven for terrorists. We should avoid issues that create tension. Destruction of cities like Mandali, Ghoranieh, Khaniqin and … is enough for us."

Baghdad, 3 Jan. (AKI) – The leader of the Iranian mujahadeen, Massoud Rajavi, who was thought to have been in hiding since the American occupation of Iraq, is under house arrest there, according to the Paris-based website, roozonline. Massoud Rajavi and another 27 leaders of the Iranian movement, who were confined in the Ashraf base, after the fall of Saddam Hussein, have reportedly been shifted to US military custody in the Mercury Camp. The Iranian mujahadeen is a militant guerrilla movement seeking to overthrow the government of Iran and was based first in France and then in Iraq.

The Mujahadeen of the Iranian People is active in Europe under the name of the National Resistance Council, with a declared aim of overthrowing the Islamic republic of Iran. Listed as a terror group by Washington and the European Union, the Muajahadeen were founded in the late 1960s, before the Islamic Revolution in Iran as the armed wing of a religious movement opposing the then monarchy.

Their first action in that period was the murder of several American military advisors in Tehran to train the troops of the Shah. After briefly cooperating with Ayatollah Khomeini, after the 1979 revolution, the mujahadeen went underground to fight the Islamic regime. During the Iran-Iraq war they transferred their base first to the outskirts of Paris and then to Baghdad, under the protection of Saddam Hussein.

Roozonline argues that the arrest of Massoud Rajavi and other senior figures is the result of the first encounter by the American ambassador to Baghdad, Zalmai Khalilzad, who was tasked by the White House with getting Iranian leaders to the negotiation table. "The negotiations are limited to issues regarding Iraq," said the ambassador.

Iran has for some time been calling for the arrest and the extradition of more than 3,000 Iranian Mujahadeen in Iraq.

After the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, Iranian mujahadeen camps were bombed by coalition forces and the weaponry seized. The personnel initially placed under armed guard in a camp outside Baghdad. In August 2004, despite considering it a terrorist group, the United States granted the mujahadeen in Iraq Geneva Convention protection, making deportation to Iran illegal.

The Iranian mujahadeen maintained an information office in Washington DC, until it was designated a terrorist group. This designation has never been fully accepted – in 2003, more than a hundred members of congress signed a letter calling for the lifting of this designation.

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Iranian Mujahadeen said to be in U.S. Custody