Iran opposition says it foils Baghdad mortar attack by Iranian regime

Agence France Presse

March 28, 2000

BAGHDAD, March 28 - Iran's armed opposition, the People's Mujahedeen, said Tuesday it had foiled a mortar attack on their Baghdad headquarters by "Iranian agents."

"One of our members prevented at 7.00 a.m. (0400 GMT) a mortar attack by agents of the Iranian regime aimed at our headquarters in Baghdad," Mujahedeen spokesman Farid Soulaimani told AFP.

"When the terrorists saw members of our group, they took off, abandoning the launcher for a 60-mm mortar and some ammunition," he said.

Soulaimani also said "agents of the Iranian regime opened fire at 5.00 p.m. (1400 GMT) on a Mujahedeen car near the town of Al-Sawira," some 45 kilometres (30 miles) south of Baghdad.

"There was an exchange of fire between the Mujahedeen and the terrorists who fled the scene, but with no casualties," he said.

Six mortar shells exploded on March 22 in a Baghdad neighbourhood housing many Palestinian refugees, killing two Iraqis and two Palestinians, and injuring 38.

The Iraqi authorities blamed Tehran for "this criminal operation," but Iran categorically denied involvement.

On Saturday, the Iraqi military said it had shot down an Iranian pilotless plane near the border, the second time in 11 days, amid claims by the Mujahedeen that Tehran was stepping up reconnaissance flights to attack its bases inside Iraq.

The Mujahadeen claimed responsibility for a March 13 mortar attack which left four people injured and caused major damage around a housing estate close to the headquarters of the Revolutionary Guards.

The Mujahedeen, which maintains a large guerrilla force in Iraq as well as offices in Europe and North America, is reviled by the Tehran regime

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Iraq says it shot down another Iranian drone

Agence France Presse

March 25, 2000

BAGHDAD, March 25 - Iraq said Saturday its air defences shot down an Iranian pilotless plane near the border with Iran for the second time in less than two weeks, as Baghdad held a mass protest against a mortar attack blamed on Tehran.

The air defences chief, quoted by Iraq's official news agency INA, said the drone was shot down on Friday over the Al-Azair region of Missan province, some 400 kilometres (250 miles) southeast of Baghdad.

The Iraqi military has said it also downed an Iranian drone on March 13, in the Khanaqin region east of the capital. Tehran has neither confirmed nor denied the report.

Iraq blamed Iran for a mortar attack on Tuesday that killed four people and injured 38 others in Baghdad in apparent retaliation for a similar strike in Tehran claimed by Iran's armed opposition, which is based in Iraq.

But Iran, which fought a 1980-1988 war against Iraq, denied it was involved. "These explosions are the result of Iraq's internal problems and have nothing to do with Iran," a foreign ministry official said.

The official deplored "such subversive acts" and warned Baghdad "not to fall into the propaganda trap of some foreign media which are seeking to create problems between the two countries."

INA said an estimated 200,000 Iraqis and other Arabs staged a demonstration in Baghdad on Saturday to protest at the "cowardly" attack which hit a residential area of the capital. They burnt US and Israeli flags.

Two Iraqis and two Palestinians were killed in the attack.

Iran's main armed opposition group, the People's Mujahedeen, claimed responsibility for a similar mortar attack in Tehran on March 13 and said Tehran was making reconnaissance flights to retaliate against its bases in Iraq.

The United States on Friday said Baghdad had spent tens of millions of dollars on building a Mujahedeen base west of the Iraqi capital. The group swiftly denied the allegation, saying the money was its own.

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Iranian opposition hits back at US allegations

Agence France Presse

March 25, 2000

NICOSIA, March 25 - Iran's armed opposition, the People's Mujahedeen, hit back Saturday at US State Department allegations that Iraq had use tens of millions of dollars earned from smuggling oil to build a base for the group.

In a statement faxed to AFP in Nicosia, the Iraq-based Mujahedeen said that its "bases and centres have all been built from their own funds, raised from contributions by the people of Iran.

"A plethora of documents backing this assertion is available for anyone interested and can be published."

The State Department Friday released a satellite photograph showing military installations located in the city of Faluja, west of Baghdad, that US officials say can accommodate between 3,000 and 5,000 fighters.

"It will be used to coordinate MEK terrorist activities and to plan attacks against targets in Iran and elsewhere," said State Department spokesman James Rubin.

MEK is an acronym for the People's Mujahedeen, which for the past three years has been designated by the State Department as a terrorist organization.

The Mujahedeen retorted Saturday, "There is nothing secret or hidden about the camps and centres of ... the Iranian Resistance in the Iran-Iraq border region, Baghdad and west of Baghdad."

These bases had come under attack 88 times by "the religious, terrorist dictatorship ruling Iran" since 1993, it said.

They had also been visited by UN weapons inspectors in Iraq, who acknowledged they were not under Iraqi control, the statement added.

Camp Bagherzadeh, the site featured in the State Department photograph, was nothing new, it said, having been inspected by UNSCOM in September 1997 and visited by foreign journalists on dozens of occasions.

US State Department spokesman James Rubin said Friday that by releasing the satellite photo the United States wanted to illustrate "the threat that Saddam Hussein poses because of his willingness to spend money that he has to provide direct state sponsorship for terrorism."

The State Department action came as the UN Security Council was discussing the humanitarian situation in Iraq after nine years of international sanctions.

The Mujahedeen statement noted that the New York Times quoted a senior US official as saying "this is a propaganda campaign" being used against any easing of the sanctions.

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Iraq Builds Base for Rebels Fighting Iran, U.S. Contends

Iraq Builds Base for Rebels Fighting Iran, U.S. Contends
By ELAINE SCIOLINO

New York Times
March 24, 2000

Iraq has spent tens of millions of dollars in recent months to build a military headquarters for an Iranian opposition group that the Clinton administration considers a terrorist organization, senior administration officials said today.

As evidence, the officials declassified a satellite photograph of the complex, which covers 2.4 square miles and is in the Iraqi city of Faluja, about 40 miles west of Baghdad. The officials said the Iraqis had used profits from the illegal sale of oil to build the complex for the exclusive use of the People's Mujahedeen, an Iranian military and political movement whose goal is to overthrow the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The photo is to be made public by the State Department on Friday in an effort to counter critics who say the sanctions imposed after the gulf war cause widespread suffering in Iraq. The administration will argue that President Saddam Hussein is smuggling oil to support terrorism and does not deserve relief from the sanctions.

''This is a propaganda campaign,'' a senior administration said about issuing the photo. ''There's no question this is what we are doing here. This is part of our effort to show the world the danger Saddam would pose if the controls on the access to his oil revenues were lifted.''

Not coincidentally, at an open meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Friday on the humanitarian situation in Iraq, the United States will argue in favor of keeping tough sanctions against Iraq, as well as finding ways to ease the Iraqi people's suffering.

Administration officials insist that the new evidence against Iraq is not related to the speech by Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright on Friday in which Dr. Albright announced the easing of some sanctions against Iran to allow exports of Iranian carpets, caviar, pistachios and dried fruits to the United States.

But the satellite photo is quite likely to be welcomed by at least some Iranian officials, who praised the United States when it designated the People's Mujahedeen as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997.

It was created in the 1960's as an armed Islamic opposition movement against Shah Mohammed Riza Pahlevi and fought in guerrilla operations that forced his overthrow. But the People's Mujahedeen was also avowedly socialist and was cut out of the power structure built by the ayatollahs.

The group turned against the new government and continues to wage an armed struggle against the Iranian state from Iraq, which provides the group with financial and logistical support and military equipment. The People's Mujahedeen remains the most powerful opponent of the Islamic Republic, attacking targets in Iran and assassinating Iranian officials. It is generally believed to have 15 to 20 bases in Iraq.

The Mujahedeen complex near Baghdad, which is not yet operating, was begun in late 1998 on the site of an Iraqi military area and is said to include lakes, farms, barracks and administrative buildings that can accommodate 3,000 to 5,000 people, administration officials said.

One official described the site as a ''headquarters which will be used to coordinate Mujahedeen activities throughout Iraq and elsewhere.''

The officials declined to say how they could be certain that the site was intended for Mujahedeen use, citing the need to protect intelligence sources.

Washington has used declassified satellite imagery for years in its campaign against Iraq, showing photos that it says prove that it is rebuilding factories that could make chemical weapons or missiles and building sprawling palaces.

Iraq accuses Iran for four dead, 38 wounded in Baghdad mortar attack

Agence France Presse 

March 22, 2000

BYLINE: Farouk Choukri

BAGHDAD, March 22 - Iraq blamed Iran Wednesday for a mortar attack that killed four people and wounded 38 in a busy part of Baghdad in apparent retaliation for a similar strike in Tehran claimed by Iran's armed opposition based in Iraq.

"A group of agents of the Iranian regime fired six mortar bombs at densely populated civilian areas of Baghdad" in the attack on Tuesday night, the official news agency INA said.

Iraq condemned the action as "flagrant aggression" and "reserves the right to retaliate in the appropriate manner", it said, adding that a 60-mm mortar, two unexploded bombs, a compass and other equipment were found abandoned at the scene.

"Two Iraqis were killed as well as two other Arab nationals, while 38 others were wounded," INA said, correcting its earlier report that only one Iraqi was among the dead.

Azzam al-Ahmad, the Palestinian representative to Baghdad, said the other two dead were Palestinians and that the mortars hit the eastern district of Baladiyat, home to most of Iraq's Palestinian refugees.

Women, children and old people were among the wounded taken to hospital after the mortars crashed into apartment blocks, INA said.

A local resident, contacted by AFP, said Baladiyat's squares were filled with people celebrating the Muslim feast of Al-Adha and the Kurdish New Year at the time of the attack.

"It caused a huge panic," he said, adding that the number of dead was expected to rise "because many of the wounded were seriously hurt".

Iran's main armed opposition group, the People's Mujahedeen, has charged that Iranian agents fired several rockets last Saturday at one of its camps near the Iraqi town of Kut, without causing casualties.

The attack came a day after Iranian security services accused Iraq of helping two opposition fighters to sneak into Iran and carry out a mortar attack in northern Tehran.

The Iraq-based Mujahadeen claimed responsibility for the March 13 mortar attack which left four people injured and caused major damage around a housing estate close to the headquarters of the Revolutionary Guards.

The Iraqi military has said it shot down an Iranian pilotless plane on the same day near the border, as the Mujahedeen accused Tehran of stepping up reconnaissance flights to attack its bases inside Iraq.

Iraq's support for the Mujahedeen is a key obstacle to a normalisation in relations with Iran, with which it fought a 1980-1988 war. Iran, meanwhile, hosts Iraqi Shiite opposition groups.

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Iranians fire rockets at opposition camp in Iraq: report

Agence France Presse

March 19, 2000

BAGHDAD, March 19 - Iranian agents have fired several rockets at a camp of Iran's main armed opposition force inside Iraq, the People's Mujahadeen said Sunday, adding that no one was wounded.

"Agents of the clerical regime's intelligence ministry and Revolutionary Guards fired several 107-mm rockets" at Faezeh camp near the town of Kut on Saturday night, the Mujahedeen said in a statement.

The attackers fled leaving behind equipment and some ammunition, according to the communique from the Iraq-based People's Mujahedeen which underlined "its inalienable right to respond and self-defence."

Iran's security services on Friday accused Iraq of helping two guerrilla fighters to sneak into Iran and carry out a mortar attack in northern Tehran.

It was the first time that Tehran openly accused Iraq of helping the fighters infiltrate Iran and followed a spate of apparently tit-for-tat incidents.

The Mujahadeen claimed responsibility for the March 13 mortar attack which left four people injured and caused major damage around a housing estate close to the headquarters of the Revolutionary Guards.

On Wednesday, the Iraqi military said it had shot down an Iranian pilotless plane near the border, as the Mujahedeen accused Tehran of stepping up reconnaissance flights to attack its bases inside Iraq.

And Iranian state television announced late Thursday that two Iranian soldiers were killed in clashes with Mujahadeen fighters, near Kouchk in the southwest, not far from the Iraqi border.

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Iranian opposition "foils air raid" on base inside Iraq

Agence France Presse

March 14, 2000

BAGHDAD, March 14 - Iran's armed opposition said it foiled Iranian attacks, including an air strike, on two of its bases inside Iraq on Tuesday, a day after claiming responsibility for a mortar attack near military barracks in Tehran.

The air raid targetted the Anzali camp near Jalula, 120 kilometres (72 miles) east of the Iraqi capital, while the second, by three men in a car, was aimed at Badizadegan camp in Baghdad's western suburbs, statements said.

In the Anzali raid, "the attacking fighter bombers were fended off by the camp's air defence units and forced to flee before they could carry out their mission," the People's Mujahedeen said.

It said two Iranian Pilatus reconnaissance aircraft had overflown the camp beforehand.

In the second attack the three men opened fire indiscriminately, seriously wounding an Iraqi civilian, when they came up against a Mujahedeen patrol, the group said.

When the patrol returned fire they fled the scene, but their car overturned 25 kilometres (15 miles) away. Though the men escaped an anti-tank rocket launcher and two rockets were found hidden in the vehicle, the Mujahedeen said.

The Iraq-based Mujahedeen claimed responsibility for the Tehran mortar attacks on Monday that wounded at least four people, according to state television, saying the target was the headquarters of Major General Rahim Safavi, commander of the Revolutionary Guards.

In other statements released Tuesday the group denied any civilians had been injured, and said a number of Guards casualties were being treated in a hospital reserved for the elite force.

It accused the Iranian authorities of a cover-up.

In Tehran foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi called on countries which "protect human rights and oppose terrorism" not to give the Mujahadeen refuge.

"Those who commit such acts of violence are criminals who are unable to comprehend the fact that Iranian society is marching towards institutional democracy," he said.

Asefi linked the mortar attack, the second in Tehran in six-weeks, to the assassination attempt the day before on prominent reformist Said Hajarian, who was critically wounded.

The People's Mujahadeen denied carrying out the attack on Hajarian, blaming it on "infighting in the mullahs' regime."

The conservative speaker of the outgoing parliament, Ali Akbar Nateq-Nuri, also blamed both attacks on "a plot against the regime directed from abroad."

The reformist newspaper Mosharekat, organ of the main reformist group, the Islamic Iran Participation Front, said however there were two opposition groups, one internal and the other external.

The Mujahedeen, which maintains a large guerrilla force in Iraq as well as offices in Europe and North America, is reviled by the Tehran regime, which refers to it as the "hypocrites" in its official statements.

Tehran regularly accuses the Mujahedeen of causing civilian casualties in its attacks and has repeatedly called on foreign governments to stop harboring the "terrorist" group.

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