Iraq moves 400 MKO members to Camp of Liberty

TEHRAN, Feb. 18 (MNA) – The Iraqi government evacuated an initial batch of 400 members of the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) on Saturday from Camp New Iraq, which was formerly known as Camp Ashraf, Iranian Ambassador to Baghdad Hassan Danaiifar said. They have been moved to Camp Liberty, a former U.S. military base near the Baghdad International Airport. The measure by the Iraqi government is considered the first step toward expelling their entire group from Iraqi territory. The MKO started its activities as a terrorist group based in Iraq in the early 1980s. In addition to the assassination of hundreds of Iranian officials and citizens, the group cooperated with Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime in its repression of the Iraqi people. The MKO had fought as a mechanized division in alliance with Saddam Hussein during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. But it was disarmed and left stranded after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 that toppled the dictator. The U.S. government characterized the MKO as a cult and designated it a terrorist group in 1997, holding it responsible for the assassinations of three U.S. Army officers and three civilian contractors before the Islamic Revolution (in 1979). With funding from the Iranian diaspora, the MKO has mounted a major campaign in the U.S. and Europe and enlisted many top national security figures from mostly Republican administrations as well as a number of prominent Democratic politicians to get its terrorist designation lifted.