Iraqi forces storm settlement of Iranian exiles

[bobby_cahill]

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN and LARA JAKES, Associated Press Sinan Salaheddin And Lara Jakes, Associated Press – 46 mins ago

BAGHDAD – Iraqi forces stormed a settlement of Iranian exiles early Friday near the two nations' border that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has long sought to expel. Both sides reported casualties in the latest round of clashes at the camp that has become a point of contention between the Iraqi government and some of its fiercest opponents.

The exiles said as many as 28 residents at Camp Ashraf in Iraq's northeastern Diyala province were killed; top Iraqi government officials vehemently denied any fatalities.

A hospital official in Baqouba, Diyala's capital, reported three people were killed and 13 wounded in the pre-dawn offensive at Camp Ashraf, the base of the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information, said five Iraqi soldiers also were injured.

Camp Ashraf and the Iranian exile group have long been a source of tension to Iraq's Shiite-led government. Al-Maliki has sought to remove the group because of its past ties to former Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein. Iran, a close Shiite ally of Baghdad, has also been pressing for the expulsion of the group, which seeks the overthrow of Tehran's clerical rulers.

In an interview Friday, Iraqi Lt. Gen. Ali Ghaidan said he ordered the incursion to curb two days of exiles hurling stones at troops and throwing themselves in front of soldiers' trucks. He said the uprising began after Iraqi troops began switching out military units that are stationed nearby.

Ghaidan and government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh denied anyone was killed, and said the situation has calmed after only a few hours.

"One hundred members of the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran attacked our security and military forces," al-Dabbagh said. "Our forces did not use weapons. The situation is calm now. Our forces are trying to redeploy themselves inside and outside the camp. The Iraqi government is warning of violating the Iraqi laws in that area."

Camp residents painted a far more dire picture of the scene, and supplied video purportedly taken early Friday that showed gunfire and military bulldozers approaching the camp.

Resident Shahriar Kia said 28 exiles have been killed, including six women, and at least 325 wounded in the violence. His claim could not be immediately confirmed because access to the camp is restricted.

"This is a massacre, a catastrophe," said Behzad Saffari, who has lived at Ashraf for nine years and acts as the camp's legal adviser. "They came inside the camp and attacked people with grenades and tear gas, and then they started to shoot people. When people saw the attack was about to begin, they lined up to defend their homes."

In a nearly six-minute video posted on YouTube that the exiles claim was taken of the offensive, Humvees flying the Iraqi flag are chasing down nearly some 100 stone-throwing masked people in an open area. At least one was seen hit by a Humvee.

At least one Iraqi soldier was seen firing from his AK-47 machine gun, but his target was not clear. The video also shows at least six people lying on a the ground, and a dozen of blood-soaked men being treated by doctors.

The U.N. mission in Baghdad, which monitors the Ashraf situation, declined immediate comment.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in northern Iraq to visit troops, told reporters he was aware of reports of deaths at Ashraf but did not know how many, or whether they were confirmed. He said U.S. forces were maintaining a "nearby presence" but did not give details, although he said the military was providing some medical assistance.

"I urge the Iraqi government to show restraint and live up to their commitments to treat Ashraf residents in accordance with Iraqi law and international obligations," Gates told reporters traveling with him in Mosul, 225 miles (360 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad.

The last major clash between Iraqi forces and the exile group was in July 2009, and also coincided with a trip by Gates to Iraq in what analysts then speculated was al-Maliki's effort to establish its independence from the United States.

The People's Mujahedeen is deeply controversial. Critics call it a cult with an ideology mixing Marxism, secularism, an obsession with martyrdom and near adoration of its leaders. The U.S. considers it a terrorist organization — albeit one that has provided the Americans with intelligence on Iran. The European Union removed it from its terror list two years ago.

Also known by its Farsi name the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, the group is the militant wing of the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran. It carried out a series of bloody bombings and assassinations in Iran in the 1980s, though it says it renounced violence in 2001.

The MEK also fought alongside Saddam's forces during the 1980s Iran-Iraq war, and Saddam set up a number of bases for them — including Camp Ashraf, their last remaining foothold in Iraq, located in a barren desert stretch north of Baghdad, 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the Iranian border.

Iraqi lawmaker Hamid al-Mutlaq, a Sunni who sits on parliament's security committee, confirmed Ashraf residents were killed in the assault Friday but did not say how many. He called the raid "unjustified," and noted that Ashraf's 3,400 residents are legally considered "protected persons" under the Geneva Conventions.

"There is no doubt that Iran is behind the attack on the camp today," al-Mutlaq said.

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Bushra Juhi in Baghdad, Sameer N. Yacoub in Amman, Jordan, and Robert Burns in Mosul, Iraq, contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110408/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq

Edited April 8, 2011 by bobby_cahill