Special to WorldTribune.com

BAGHDAD — The Iranian opposition has again been attacked in Iraq.

On Sept. 1, at least 50 people were killed in a mortar and machine gun
attack on a camp assigned to members of Iran’s leading opposition group,
Mujahadeen Khalq.

MEK said the attack on Camp Ashraf was directed by the Iraq Army, accused of being aligned to Iran.

“They want to pave the way for further attacks and massacres in [Camp] Liberty,” Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, said.

Iraq, the United States and United Nations confirmed the mortar attack. The UN said at least 47 people were killed and demanded an investigation by the Baghdad government.

“The priority for the Iraqi government is to provide immediate medical assistance to the injured and to ensure their security and safety against any violence from any side,” the UN, which sent a team to Ashraf on Sept. 2,
said.

MEK, removed from the U.S. State Department list of terrorist
organizations in 2012, said 52 of its members were killed, many of them
bound and riddled by machine gun fire. The opposition group said 100 members
had been in Ashraf during the attack, believed ordered by Iran’s Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps.

In 2012, some 3,000 MEK members, pressed by the United States, left
Ashraf for Camp Liberty, located in Baghdad. But 100 Iranian
opposition activists stayed in Ashraf to oversee the transfer of assets.

Iraq has pledged repeatedly to protect MEK amid efforts to find
asylum for members. The government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki
has denied any link to the series of bloody attacks on Ashraf, located west
of Baghdad, in 2013.

“The Iraqi government stresses the need for help to deport elements of
the Mujahadeen Khalq who are on Iraqi soil illegally but at the same time
confirms its commitment to the safety of souls on its territory,” Al Maliki
said in a statement.

  50 killed in mortar attack on Iran opposition’s camp in Iraq, Camp Ashraf, Mujahadeen Khalq, National Council of Resistance of Iran, Nouri Al Maliki