Attack on MKO camp in Iraq kills five

TEHRAN,Feb.11(MNA) – At least five people were killed and more than 25 wounded in a rocket attack on a camp of an anti-Iranian terrorist organization in Baghdad early on Saturday, police sources said. The Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) said six people, including a woman, died after its camp was hit by mortars and missiles, while the UN mission in Iraq said it was aware of a number of deaths, Reuters reported. The MKO fought alongside the forces of former dictator Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. It is now seeking to recast itself as an Iranian opposition force but is no longer welcome in Iraq under the Shia-led government that came to power after U.S.-led forces invaded and toppled Saddam in 2003. The attack struck the group’s base in the former U.S. military compound Camp Liberty in the western part of the capital, where most of the group was relocated by Iraqi authorities last year from a base given to them by Saddam. “At 5:30 a.m. around 18 Katyusha rockets landed in the camp, west of Baghdad, killing five people and wounding 42,” said an Iraqi policeman at the base, speaking on condition of anonymity. Another police source said between 25 and 45 people had been injured. A spokesman for the group said they did not know for sure who was behind the attack. The United Nations intends to process MKO members for refugee status in other countries, but they have complained that the conditions at Camp Liberty are poor and that they have not been permitted to bring many of their personal belongings. The group’s leader, Maryam Rajavi, has called on the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to speed up the process and has asked the Iraqi government to return them to their former base Camp Ashraf in the meantime. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the U.S. government condemned the attack on Camp Liberty, Reuters reported on Sunday. The MKO was formally removed from the U.S. State Department’s official list of terrorist organizations last year based on the claim that the group had renounced violence.