Iraq says members of the terrorist group Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) holed up in the country must leave by the end of the current year.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said on Monday that the cabinet is determined to shut down Camp Ashraf located north of the capital, Baghdad, and disband the terrorist group, AFP reported.
"The council of ministers has committed to implement an earlier decision about disbanding the terrorist group by the end of this year at the latest, and the necessity of getting it out of Iraq," said the official.
Dabbagh further underlined that the ministers had decided that the MKO members would be forced to leave Iraq "through all means, including political, diplomatic, and cooperation with the United Nations and international organizations."
According to AFP, 10 people were reportedly killed in clashes between Iraqi security forces and MKO terrorists at Camp Ashraf last Friday.
The MKO has carried out numerous acts of terror and violence against Iranian civilians and government officials.
The group fled to Iraq in 1986, where it enjoyed the support of Iraq’s executed dictator Saddam Hussein, and set up Camp Ashraf in Diyala province, near the Iranian border.
The organization is also known to have cooperated with Saddam in suppressing the 1991 uprisings in southern Iraq and the massacre of Iraqi Kurds.
Iran has repeatedly called on the Iraqi government to expel the group, but the US has been blocking the expulsion by pressuring the Iraqi government.