Camp Ashraf, which served as a base for the MEK in Iraq, was attacked on September 1, 2013, by the terrorist agents of the Iranian regime and its Iraqi proxy forces, which resulted in 52 deaths and seven MEK members being taken hostage, as well as millions of dollars’ worth of property damage.

This was not the first (or last) time that MEK members and camps were subjected to attacks by the Iranian regime, but this attack happened while the 100 MEK members who remained in Camp Ashraf to protect MEK property were supposedly protected by the Fourth Geneva Convention and a quadripartite agreement between the Iraqi government, the US, the UN, and the MEK. (The remaining MEK members had been transferred to Camp Liberty to avoid attacks by the regime.)

The new State Department report entitled Iranian Regime Malign Activities During Negotiation With Iran and During JCPOA, explained that the Iranian Quds Force (QF) was behind the attack.

It read: “On September 1, 2013, an attack by Iranian proxies Kata’ib Hezbollah (KH) and Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq (AAH) on Camp Ashraf in Iraq, led to the deaths of 50 members of the Mujahedeen-e Khalq, or MEK. Press reports claim members of the QF not only planned the attack but also played a direct combat role in it. The QF, along with KH and AAH members, also abducted seven MEK members and smuggled them back to Iran, according to the press. The missing seven members haven’t been seen or heard from since the attack.”

 

Of course, this attack would not have been possible without the help of the Iraqi government, as noted by former UN advisor on Camp Ashraf Tahar Boumedra during his testimony to the British House of Commons on September 13, 2013.

He said: “The reality about Camp Ashraf is …. sealed. Nobody could penetrate Camp Ashraf without the active participation of the Iraqi Security Forces. In the east, south of Lion’s Gate, you have the base for the HQ of the Army in Ashraf and you have the police.”

He further explained that the UN had rebuked Iraq’s security for their role in what can only be described as an execution.

He said: “Iraq’s security forces, trained by the American government at a cost of billions of dollars, were sharply rebuked by the United Nations on Tuesday for a deadly raid on Sunday at Camp Ashraf, a compound near the Iranian border that houses a group of Iranian dissidents. United Nations officials, after visiting Camp Ashraf on Monday, said they had seen 52 bodies, most of them shot in the head and upper body, some with their hands tied.”

This was backed up by a Reuters report on September 1, 2013, that cited sources saying that the army and special forces opened fire on the MEK. It is clear that the Nouri al-Maliki administration in Iraq allowed Iran’s terrorist Quds Force to attack (and attempt to annihilate) the MEK. Those responsible must be held to account.