More than half of camp ashraf residents relocated

The United States special adviser on Camp Ashraf in Iraq, Daniel Fried, says nearly 2,000 residents of the camp that’s served for years as a base for a group Iran calls terrorists — half the total — have moved to a transit site called Camp Liberty.

Fried made the comments at a May 16 hearing at the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Camp Ashraf has been the base of the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK), an Iranian opposition group that has been designated as a terrorist organization by Tehran and Washington since the 1980s.

The relocation follows a deal between the Iraqi government and the United Nations in December to move the MEK out of Iraq.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that cooperation by MEK during the closure of its Iraqi base at Camp Ashraf will be "a key factor in any decision" on whether to change the group’s terrorist designation.