300 Iraqi tribal leaders condemn explosion of Ashraf City water pumping station by Iranian regime

Friday, 22 February 2008

NCRI – In the gathering of the Union of Iraqi Tribal Sheikhs Councils, 300 tribal leaders from across Iraq, condemned the bombing of the water pumping station of Ashraf City, home to the members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/ MEK) in Iraq.

The Iraqi leaders expressed their solidarity with the PMOI and called for eviction of the Iran’s Qods Force agents from Iraq.

On February 8, Iran’s Qods Force terrorists by using more than 300 kg of TNT blew up the station supplying water to the members of PMOI in Ashraf City and 20,000 villagers living in the vicinity. As a result water pumps, installations of the station and offices were destroyed and supply of water were cut off.

Sheikh Mutlaq Abde Rashid al-Darab addressing the gathering said: “The water pumping station was exploded by the Iranian regime; we call on you, the nationalist Iraqi tribes from north to the south of Iraq, to stand firm and expel all the forces of the regime ruling in Iran from our country; we ask you the Iraqi people to insist on early elections. We also condemn Ahmadinejad’s trip to Iraq.”

“After investigating the recent incidents, we came up with the conclusion that all these crimes, particularly the recent terrorist crime, have been carried out by the Iranian embassy in Baghdad and are planned by Kazemi Qomi, Iranian regime’s ambassador to Iraq, and in coordination with the Qods Force mercenaries who were dispatched from abroad, like Massoud Khodabandeh and Mostafa Mohammadi, and the local mercenaries”, said the final declaration of the gathering that was read by Sheikh Khalil al-Bayati.

The bombing of Ashraf City's power station followed the assassination on February 6 of a local tribe council member, Sheikh Hamid Ziab, in charge of protection of the power station.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) revealed that the Iranian regime in past few weeks dispatched a number of agents of Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) as well as Qods Force elements from Iran and abroad to Iraq. The agents were identified as: Massoud Khodabandeh, Mostafa Mohammadi, Reza Akbari Nasab and Alireza Bashiri. The team leader for the group belonging to the Qods Force is Tabatabaie.

These rogue elements were to prepare for subsequent plots for terrorist attacks against the PMOI members residing in Ashraf City. The mullahs' embassy in Baghdad accommodated them in Al-Mansur Hotel in Baghdad and kept a constant contact with the agents. A number of MOIS and Qods Force agents are presently staying in Al-Mansur Hotel in Baghdad.

On November 8, 2007, four members of the MOIS went to Khalis directly from the Iranian regime's embassy in Baghdad and met with Abdul-Rassoul Mullah Hamid Al-Saadi (aka Abu-Heidar) head of the local office for Badr Brigade in Khalis. At the meeting there were two commanders of the hit squads identified as Abu Tabarak Al-Saedi and Khezr Mohammad Ahmad (aka Abu-Osama Khalesi). The latter was involved in a terrorist attack on a bus carrying workers to Ashraf City in May 2006.

The bombing of Ashraf City's water pumping station has sparked a wave of strong condemnations by International and local political and human rights organizations.