Iranian missile attack on rebel base foiled: Mujahedeen

Agence France Presse

February 7, 2000

BAGHDAD, Feb 7 - Iran's main armed opposition said Monday it foiled a missile attack on one of its camps inside Iraq, as Tehran threatened retaliation for a series of explosions in the Iranian capital.

The People's Mujahedeen said its fighters on Sunday found six 107-mm missiles equipped with electronic timers just minutes before they were primed to fire at its Anzali camp, 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the Iranian border.

"Thanks to the speed and vigilance of the Mujahedeen patrol guards, the missiles and a booby trap were disabled before they could act," the Iraq-based group said in a statement.

It said the camp, near the Iraqi town of Jalawla, had been the target of Iranian air raids in September 1997 and May 1993.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards chief, General Rahim Safavi, meanwhile threatened reprisals in the wake of the blasts on Saturday in Tehran that killed one person, Iranian state radio reported.

"If Iraq does not prevent the infiltration of the counter-revolutionaries on to Iranian soil Iran and its armed forces will riposte strongly," Safavi warned, pinning responsibility for the rebels' activities firmly on Baghdad.

He noted that the Revolutionary Guards had "the task and duty of defending Iran's frontiers and ensuring security in the border zones."

Safavi expressed the hope however that the Iranian government would prevent further attacks by political means.

The Mujahedeen-claimed attack, apparently with mortars, damaged the offices of the Expediency Council, a powerful official arbitration body headed by former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

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