Thirty-five Iranian dissidents arrested by Iraqi security forces during a takeover of their base were transferred to Baghdad for questioning on Sunday, a senior Iraqi official told AFP…The group set up Camp Ashraf in the 1980s — when former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was at war with the Islamic republic ..
Iraqi police have arrested 36 members of the Mojahedeen Khalq Organization (MKO/MEK/PMOI) after clashes erupted between MKO operatives and security forces in Camp Ashraf..The arrests were confirmed by Abdul Nassir al-Mehdawi, governor of Diyala province.”Their cases are being investigated now. They are being charged with inciting trouble,”he said.”We will deal with them according to Iraqi law; we won’t send them back to Iran.”
The Iraqi government has set a month-long deadline for members of the terrorist Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) to leave Iraqi soil.”Members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO/MEK/PMOI) at Camp of New Iraq have to comply with the one-month time limit to leave Iraq. The organization members should either return to Iran or seek asylum in a third country,”Diyala province’s Police Chief Major General Abdulhussein al-Shimari told reporters on Saturday.
Iraqi Diala Province Police chief said that members of Mojahideen Khalq Organization (MKO) in ‘New Iraq Camp’ (formerly Ashraf Camp) has no choice but leaving Iraq… the committee for investigation of ‘New Iraq Camp’ dossier has determined a one-month deadline for them ( members of MKO/MEK/PMOI) to depart Iraq, and they have to decide on either returning to their homeland (Iran) or leaving for a third country.
“The US forces considered the idea when they were responsible for the security situation in Iraq since the US administration wanted to put them in confrontation with Iran there. But now the Iraqi government is responsible for their conditions and for Camp Ashraf,” Rubaie told Asharq Al-Awsat ..Al Rubaie stressed that “Iraq is committed to international conventions and to the American administration that it will preserve the security and wellbeing of those present in Camp Ashraf.
“you know our position on the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MKO/MEK), which we consider as a terrorist organization. This position has not changed after the [Mujahedin] organization’s removal from the European terrorist list, the decision, against which we filed an appeal, was based on procedural matters.”the France deputy spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs reitereated in a daily briefing on Thursday, 30 July ..
Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC) representative in Tehran Mohsen Hakim said a large number of Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO/MEK/PMOI) have asked to return home. In an interview with Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA), Hakim pointed out to Iraqi Tuesday attack over Camp Ashraf and said Iraqi forces took over the camp’s security since January 1st and then delivered the whole responsibility of the camp
Some of the rioters arrested during Iran’s post-election unrests confessed to their links with the anti-Iran terrorist group Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), and said that they had received trainings in MKO’s Camp Ashraf in Iraq.”According to the confessions made by those MKO members arrested in recent riots, these people had received trainings in Camp Ashraf to conduct sabotage and terror operations and organized activities (inside Iran),”Deputy Prosecutor-General of Tehran’s public and revolutionary courts
Iraqi authorities changed the name of a training base of the anti-Iran terrorist group, Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO/MEK/PMOI), after seizing full control of the camp.”Camp Ashraf’s name has been changed to Camp of New Iraq, after the Iraqi security forces assumed full security of the camp,”Political Adviser of the head of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC) Mohsen al-Hakim told FNA on Friday.
U.S. medical teams provided assistance to Iranian dissidents under siege by Iraqi forces in their Camp Ashraf enclave in the eastern province of Diyala. Iraqi police earlier this week seized the Camp Ashraf base of the People’s Mujahedin of Iran using tear gas and water cannons. Authorities promised to expel the 3,500 members of the group.