U.S. soldier killed and two Polish soldiers wounded in separate attacks

Associated Press
December 13, 2003
By SLOBODAN LEKIC

BAGHDAD, Iraq - … Other members of the Governing Council said they may ask the U.S. military to expel 3,800 paramilitaries of the Mujahedeen Khalq, Iranians who oppose their government and who operate from Iraq.

"We might ask the Americans because they have the military capabilities," Governing Council member Dara Noor al-Din said. "We don't have an army and the police force isn't well enough equipped to face the Mujahedeen."

The U.S.-appointed council has no plans to hand the Mujahedeen Khalq members over to Iran, where they are wanted for terrorist attacks, Iraqi officials said.

The Mujahedeen Khalq has for years sought to topple Iran's clerical government. During Saddam Hussein's rule, Mujahedeen Khalq fighters were believed to have taken part in some of Saddam's campaigns to suppress Iraq's Kurdish and Shiite Muslim communities.