Political and security sources in Iraq said the US troops deployed in the country provide logistical support and camouflage for the anti-Iran Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) to run terrorist operations.
Sheikh Ibrahim Abdullah Al-Jabouri, a member of the council of Iraqi tribal leaders in Salahiddin, told the Habilian Association – an Iran-based human rights group formed of the family members and relatives of the Iranian victims of terrorism – that the MKO members stationed in Camp Ashraf pass through the Iraqi security check points in US vehicles.
"The American vehicles enter Camp Ashraf and take members of the MKO out of the camp for terrorist operations and after the operation, Americans take them back to the camp," he said.
Iraqi security forces took control of the main training base of the MKO at Camp Ashraf – about 60km (37 miles) north of Baghdad – in 2009 and detained dozens of the members of the terrorist group.
The Iraqi authority also changed the name of the military center from Camp Ashraf to the Camp of New Iraq.
"Nobody dares to make any obstacles on the way of American vehicles’ arrival at camp Ashraf and they easily enter the camp without being questioned. So, they take the MKO members out of the camp for terrorist operation and then carry them back to the camp when they are finished," Sheikh Al-Jabouri continued.
He underlined that the MKO (also known as the MEK, PMOI, NCRI, the Rajavi Cult) terrorist group has never abandoned its terrorist operations, and stated, "We have suffered many losses since the arrival of the Americans in our country and continuation and spread of terrorist operations in Iraq is among them."
"We have devoted numerous martyrs in the way of defending our country, but we would do our best to expel terrorist groups, the Mojahedin-e Khalq in particular, from our country and to bring back security and peace to the people of Iraq," the member of the Salahiddin Tribal Reconcile Committee concluded.
The MKO has been in Iraq’s Diyala province since the 1980s.
The MKO, whose main stronghold is in Iraq, is blacklisted by much of the international community, including the United States.
Before an overture by the EU, the MKO was on the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations subject to an EU-wide assets freeze. Yet, the MKO puppet leader, Maryam Rajavi, who has residency in France, regularly visited Brussels and despite the ban enjoyed full freedom in Europe.
The MKO is behind a slew of assassinations and bombings inside Iran, a number of EU parliamentarians said in a recent letter in which they slammed a British court decision to remove the MKO from the British terror list. The EU officials also added that the group has no public support within Iran because of their role in helping Saddam Hussein in the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988).
Many of the MKO members abandoned the terrorist organization while most of those still remaining in the camp are said to be willing to quit but are under pressure and torture not to do so.
A May 2005 Human Rights Watch report accused the MKO of running prison camps in Iraq and committing human rights violations.
According to the Human Rights Watch report, the outlawed group puts defectors under torture and jail terms.
The group, 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 started assassination of the citizens and officials after the revolution in a bid to take control of the newly established Islamic Republic. It killed several of Iran’s new leaders in the early years after the revolution, including the then President, Mohammad Ali Rajayee, Prime Minister, Mohammad Javad Bahonar and the Judiciary Chief, Mohammad Hossein Beheshti who were killed in bomb attacks by MKO members in 1981.
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 also argue for the MKO to be taken off the US terror list.
