Iranian regime forced to retreat from lies against PMOI

Monday, 11 February 2008

NCRI – In a statement yesterday, the Iranian regime withdrew its claim about the arrest of members of the main Iranian opposition, the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) in Iraq.

The state-run news agency IRNA reported on Sunday "Iran's consulate in Karbala said on Sunday that the two Iranians arrested in Iraq are ordinary pilgrims," and reiterated that they were not affiliated to the PMOI.

"The Iraq-based Iranian diplomats have acknowledged the identity of the two Iranians to the Iraqi officials and it is expected that they will be released later in the day," IRNA reported.

On Saturady an agent of the clerical regime acting as the spokesman of the Karbala police force disseminated the false claims that four members of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) had been arrested in that city.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in a statement said on Saturday, "The PMOI has no presence in any part of Iraq except in the city of Ashraf. The source of these lies is the terrorist Qods Force of the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that is setting the stage for further terrorist operations against the PMOI and the residents of Ashraf city."

In an explosion on February 8, the terrorist agents of the Iranian regime's Qods Force destroyed the water supply pumping station of Ashraf City (100 km to northeast of Baghdad), home to members of PMOI. The pumping station was located 25 km to the west of Ashraf City. As a result, supply of water to Ashraf and 20,000 Iraqis living in the area were cut off.

The bombing of Ashraf City's power station followed by 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.