Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), also called Hashd al-Shaabi, held a parade in Camp Ashraf, the longtime headquarters of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajvi) in Iraq.
Camp Ashraf in northwest of Baghdad was donated to MEK by Saddam Hussein the group’s major financial and military sponsor. It was the group’s main base in the eight years of the war Saddam Hussein imposed on Iran. And, it was there that Massoud Rajavi built his cult of personality, practiced cut-like activities, trained terrorist forces, launched attacks against Iranian country fellowmen and punished his own dissident members.
After the collapse of the Iraqi dictator in 2003, the US army surrounded the camp and disarmed MEK forces. The camp was officially closed after the last 280 residents were flown to Albania, in 2016.
Hashd al-Shaabi parade in Camp Ashraf
The parade that was held by Hashd al-Shaabi on Saturday morning to celebrate the seventh anniversary of the founding of PMF was in the presence of Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, who is also commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
Numerous PMF brigades marched in the parade, including Shiite, Christian, and Yazidi, according to images and video shared by the PMF-linked media sources. An image of Abu Madhi al-Muhandis, the PMF commander killed alongside Iran’s General Qasem Soleimani in a US drone strike in Baghdad in January 2020, was carried in the parade.
Camp Ashraf was a symbolic container for the ideology of MEK. The group leaders still glorify the name so as they named their headquarters in Albania as Camp Ashraf Three.