19 killed in military operation on Iranian exile camp in eastern Iraq

English.news.cn   2013-09-01 17:17:57               

BAQUBA, Iraq, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) — Iraqi security forces carried out a military operation on an Iranian opposition camp in the eastern province of Diyala, killing 19 and wounding some 30 others, local media and the opposition group said on Sunday.

The Iraqi army backed by Special Weapons And Tactics, or SWAT, raided at dawn Ashraf Camp where members of People’s Mujahideen Organization of Iran (PMOI) reside, killing 19 and wounding some 30 others,” NINA news agency quoted a source in the camp as saying.

 

The Iraqi troops began the attack by an hour-long mortar barrage before they stormed the partially deserted camp near the provincial capital city of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, it said.

Only some 100 PMOI members remain in Camp Ashraf after more than 3,000 others have transferred to a former U.S. air base near Baghdad’s airport.

Later in the day, the PMOI confirmed the attack and said that 19 of its members, including two leading figures, were killed, dozens were wounded, and some others arrested by Iraqi troops.

“The Iranian resistance calls for immediate dispatch of delegations from the United States and the UN to Ashraf to prevent continuation of the massacre,” PMOI said in an on-line statement.

In late 2011, the Iraqi government and the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq struck a deal to move the camp residents to Baghdad temporarily until the UN High Commissioner for Refugees gets them resettled in a third country.