People in Iraq’s Diyala province organized a protest in front of Camp Ashraf where the Mujahidin Khalq terrorist organization or MKO members are residing.
Key individuals turned out for the protest including tribal leaders, clerics and local government officials.
Protesters have been shouting,”leave our country”, and carried anti-MKO slogans to express their intolerance towards the presence of the organization that they say has caused so much pain in their lives.
The tribal leaders stated that they attended the protest to call on the government to respond to public demands to evacuate the camp from the country.
In response to the protest, the MKO members gathered behind the safety of barbwires, throwing insults to the protesters.
Local Iraqi officials say the MKO members who claim they are only guests in Iraq should start acting like guests, and stop showing disrespect to the citizens of this country.
MKO has been in Iraq’s Diyala province since the 1980s and was part of Saddam Hussein’s war against Iran during that period.
The group is especially notorious in Iran for having sided with former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.
Following the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, US troops disarmed the MKO members at Iraq’s Camp Ashraf, where they were based, and surrounded it until Iraqi forces took over responsibility for the camp in 2009.Download Iraqis call for Mujahedin Khalq expulsion