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.

bp/hc/kir