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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