Around 400 members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) terrorist group have been moved from Camp Ashraf to a former US military base near the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.
The transfer of the anti-Iran terrorist group to the former US base, Camp Liberty (Temporary Transit Location), near the Baghdad airport, is reportedly part of an agreement reached between the UN and Iraq back in December.
Under the deal, the UN and the Iraqi government agreed to relocate the 3,400 MKO members living in Camp Ashraf until their refugee status is determined.
Last month, another 400 members of the MKO terrorists were relocated to TTL.
In a statement issued on Saturday, the terrorist group expressed displeasure over the living conditions at TTL and sought a temporary relocation to another site near the Jordanian border.
The statement by the terrorist organization claimed that so far, "none of the minimum assurances that (Camp) Ashraf residents had sought has been met."
Most MKO terrorists fled to Iraq in 1986 after Iranian security forces discovered most of their hideouts broke up their terrorist network and arrested hundreds of them in various operations.
Having waged a war against Iran in 1980, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein allowed the terrorist group to set up the paramilitary Camp Ashraf base near Iran’s border in order to aid his regime with military and intelligence operations against the Iranian forces as well as civilians.
The group is also known to have cooperated with Saddam in suppressing the 1991 uprisings in southern Iraq and the massacre of Iraqi Kurds. It has also carried out numerous acts of violence against Iranian civilians, scientists and government officials.
Iran has repeatedly called on the Iraqi government to expel the group, but the US has vigorously attempted to block the expulsion by mounting pressure on the Iraqi government.
In late February, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a House committee that the MKO’s cooperation in a relocation plan from Camp Ashraf "will be a key factor in any decision" on whether to take it off the US list of foreign terrorist organizations.
Clinton’s remarks were viewed as a clear indication that the US is close to removing the terrorist group from its blacklist.
