Rocket Attack on Camp Liberty

Iraqi Commander Says Rocket Attacks on MKO’s Liberty Camp Was an Insider Job

A field commander of Iraq’s al-Mukhtar Army that attacked the camp where the commanders and members of the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, also known as MEK, PMOI and NCRI) have been sheltered revealed that one of the MKO members had provided them with intelligence to carry out the operation.

"The coordinates and locations of the (Liberty) base had been given to us by an MKO member who is now in Liberty," the commander said on Wednesday.

He said that the difficult and painful living conditions at Liberty Camp makes the MKO members who don’t see any chance to escape the camp, cooperate with groups like al-Mukhtar Army as their only chance for reversing the situation as they prefer to be killed or injured and be transferred out of Liberty than stay in the Camp.

Al-Mukhtar Army rocket attacks crashed in and around Liberty on Thursday, killing 23 members and wounding over 200, including senior commanders of the terrorist group.

"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 said on Friday.

The MKO, founded in the 1960s, blended elements of Islamism and Stalinism and participated in the overthrow of the US-backed Shah of Iran in 1979. Ahead of the revolution, the MKO conducted attacks and assassinations against both Iranian and western targets.

The group fled to Iraq in 1986, where it was protected by Saddam Hussein and where it helped the Iraqi dictator suppress Shiite and Kurd uprisings in the country.

The terrorist group joined Saddam’s army during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988) and helped Saddam and killed thousands of Iranian civilians and soldiers during the US-backed Iraqi imposed war on Iran.

Since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the group, which now adheres to a pro-free-market philosophy, has been strongly backed by neo-conservatives in the United States, who argued for the MKO to be taken off the US terror list.

The US formally removed the MKO from its list of terror organizations in early September, one week after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent the US Congress a classified communication about the move. The decision made by Clinton enabled the group to have its assets under the US jurisdiction unfrozen and do business with the American entities, the State Department said in a statement at the time.

In September 2012, the last groups of the MKO terrorists left Camp Ashraf, their main training center in Iraq’s Diyala province. They have been transferred to Camp Liberty. Hundreds of the MKO terrorists have now been sent to Europe, where their names were taken off the blacklist even two years before the US.

The MKO has assassinated over 12,000 Iranians in the last 4 decades. The terrorist group had even killed large numbers of Americans and Europeans in several terror attacks before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

November 18, 2015 0 comment

Camp Liberty

UN Hotline and Email for the families of residents of Camp Liberty

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

November 4, 2015 0 comment

Camp Liberty

Militia Says Group Was Warned to Leave Iraq as Soon as Possible

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,

October 31, 2015 0 comment

Camp Liberty

Iraqi militia takes credit for rocket attack targeting Iranian dissident camp

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.

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.

October 31, 2015 0 comment

Massoud Rajavi

Rajavi Ideology – ‘shed blood for publicity’

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.

October 31, 2015 0 comment

Camp Liberty

Wathiq al-Battat (Mukhtar Army) claimed responsibility for rocket attacks

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.

October 31, 2015 0 comment

Camp Liberty

Rockets near Baghdad airport kill soldiers, Iranian refugees MEK

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.

October 31, 2015 0 comment