Iraqi Kurdish figure condemns bomb attack on Asharf City's power station

Tuesday, 12 February 2008

NCRI – Dr. Mahmoud Othman, Kurdish member of the Iraqi National Assembly, strongly condemned bombing of the water pumping station of Ashraf City, home to the members of the People's Mojahedin Orgnization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) in Iraq.

Dr. Othman described the bomb attack that resulted in the water outage to Ashraf City and some 20,000 inhabitants in the surrounding area as an "anti-Islamic and inhumane action."

The statement reads in part: “Individuals affiliated with the Iranian regime are responsible for the inhuman crime. They have no intention other than pressuring the people of Diyala. The crime also deprives the local residents of drinking and irrigation water which the same station supplied."

“It is a part of a scenario that has been revealed by the press recently and is carried out under the guise of defending human rights and refugee rights. It is aimed at setting grounds for pursuing terrorist measures against the people of the area and the residents of Ashraf City,” Dr. Othman added.

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.