The first group of MKO terrorists has reportedly been transferred to Europe after their training ground in Iraq came under threat.
The group, comprised of 64 senior members of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization, were transferred from Jordan to an unknown European state by two military planes, the Tabnak website reported.
The report quoted Arab correspondents in Jordan as saying that the Iraqi government had not been informed on the”quite confidential”move.
Reports suggest that the MKO terrorists were moved to Romania, but no official has given information about the case.
Iraqi soldiers, under orders from Iraqi National Security Advisor Mowaffak Al-Rubaie, have surrounded MKO’s Camp Ashraf since Thursday, after Baghdad vowed to shut down the training ground and end the group’s presence in the country.
After the finalization of a security agreement between Baghdad and Washington, the Iraqi government took over the country’s national security issues. Under the interim agreement, Iraq now has control over Camp Ashraf in Diyala province.
The Iraqi government has vowed to expel the members of the terrorist group from the country, saying their presence”in Iraq is not an option”.
The anti-Iran MKO, which defines itself as a Marxist-Islamist guerilla army, has carried out acts of terrorism against Iranian nationals and officials.
Outlawed in Iran, the group was relocated in France before its armed wing was expelled at the order of the then-prime minister Jacques Chirac.
The organization eventually moved to Iraq, where it assisted former dictator Saddam Hussein in the massacre of thousands of Iraqi civilians in the 1990s.
Many countries, including the US, have blacklisted the MKO as a ‘terrorist’ organization. The US State Department says that the MKO assassinated at least six US citizens in Iran, prior to the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
In January, the 27-nation European Union ruled to remove the MKO from its blacklist after a seven year presence. The ruling is believed to be politically motivated, the result of legal developments combined with intense lobbying by the cult-like group.
