The Jundullah terrorist group warned Baghdad government that it would retaliate against the closure of a main camp of the anti-Iran terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) by the
"…the Iraqi government should know that its hostile measures against the residents of Camp Ashraf who are Iranian immigrants in this city are not and will not be in the interest of the Iraqi government," Jundullah said in statement.
The MKO, whose main stronghold is in Iraq, has been in the country’s Diyala province since the 1980s.
Six years after toppling Saddam government in 2003, the country’s security forces took control of the training base of the MKO at Camp Ashraf – about 60km (37 miles) north of Baghdad recently 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.
Jundullah also in its statement urged the international organizations and opposition groups to stand against the measure and act for the urgent stop of the assaults on Camp Ashraf.
The ringleader of the Jundullah terrorist gang Abdulmalik Rigi on June 2 admitted receiving assistance from the MKO.
In a significant admission, Rigi told a US-based satellite TV station, that "They (MKO) have had good intelligence collaborations with us and have provided us with much information about the activities of the Iranian regime."
"They (MKO) inform us about the regime’s activities in our areas of operations and let us know of the regime’s forces in these districts and send us most of the intelligence of our interest by email and messages," Rigi told the station.
Rigi, a well-known gang leader whose group has already staged several terrorist operations in southeastern Iran, has long been chased by Iranian troops. In one of the worst cases, his group killed 22 citizens and abducted 7 more in Tasouki region on a road linking Zahedan – the capital city of the southeastern province of Sistan and Balouchestan – to another provincial town.
Rigi, who like his fellow al-Qaeda fanatics, has a penchant for videotaped decapitation of hostages, boasted in the interview, "We have treaties of friendship with all groups who act against Iran, and, among these, the MKO can do some things for us and we too can transit their members. But, I guess that they have certain limitations and are in countries where they cannot carry out their intended actions the way they want."
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).
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.