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.
Seven members of an anti-Iranian terrorist group have been confirmed dead during two-day Iraqi raids on Ashraf Camp in northern Baghdad.. “Five of them threw themselves in front of Iraqi police vehicles,” Dabbagh said. “That’s not death by shooting but by rioting.” he added:”Dabbagh says MKO snipers killed two others when they tried to flee the camp housing 3,500 Iranian dissidents”..
Clashes flared for a second day on Wednesday between Iraqi security forces and residents of a camp housing Iran’s main exiled opposition, a day after violence left two policemen dead.Around 420 people were also wounded after Iraqi soldiers stormed the camp on Tuesday, sparking unrest that prompted the deployment of riot police to quell resistance from Camp Ashraf’s residents.
On Tuesday, Iraqi soldiers and riot police stormed Camp Ashraf, where Mojahedin Khalq Organization[PMOI/MKO/MEK] members had been based, triggering violent clashes that left at least 260 people injured.Iraqi officials say clashes broke out as they were trying to establish a police post in the camp..An Iraqi army spokesman in Diyala said two battalions of 400 soldiers each plus 200 riot police took part in Tuesday’s operation, which was ordered by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s office.
An Iraqi military official has said that Iraqi forces have taken complete control of the camp…”After the failure of negotiations with the Mujahedeen (Khalq) to enter peacefully, the Iraqi army entered Camp Ashraf with force and it now controls the camp and all entrances to it,”an Iraqi military source said. An Iraqi police official has announced that about 50 camp residents have been detained.
In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton described the raid as a legitimate act by a sovereign nation.”Although the U.S. government remains engaged and concerned about this issue, it is a matter for the government of Iraq to resolve in accordance with its laws,”she said..clashes continued for a second day Wednesday between Iraqi troops and members of an Iranian opposition group whose camp the Iraqis stormed Tuesday
The seizure of Camp Ashraf, which was disarmed by the United States in 2003 and surrounded by U. S. forces until recently, comes after months of a tense standoff at the base north of Baghdad..It also coincided with a visit to Iraq by U. S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates,..About 60 members of Iraq’s security forces were also wounded, 20 seriously, he said, adding that 50 camp residents were detained.
The Iraqi government has denied that any members of an anti-Iranian terrorist group were killed during a Tuesday raid on its base in northern Baghdad. Earlier reports said between four to eight residents had been killed when Iraqi security forces stormed Camp Ashraf – the base of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO).
US officials are reportedly “not happy” with the situation unfolding in the MEK’s Camp Ashraf, following yesterday’s raids by Iraqi forces. Today, the Iraqi government says that it plans to close the camp down entirely..Though the MEK is recognized as a terrorist organization by the US State Department, it has a complex relationship with the US. The Saddam-backed group has supplied the US with considerable information regarding Iran
A government spokesperson on Tuesday dismissed news that Iraqi forces had broken into Camp Ashraf earlier today, saying they entered the camp to enforce security within handover measures..The entrance of the Iraqi forces into Camp Ashraf is not a break-in, but rather a well-coordinated operation to stabilize the security situation inside the camp, which is an Iraqi land that cannot be outside Iraqi sovereignty,” Spokesperson Ali al-Dabbagh