Iran’s intelligence minister: Iraqi government, MKO differences deep-rooted

The terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, also known as MEK, NCR and PMOI) has deep differences with the Iraqi government, Iranian Intelligence Minister Seyed Mahmoud Alavi said. The Iranian intelligence minister’s statements came after the MKO claimed that more than 50 of its members have been killed on Sunday in clashes with Iraqi people in the Eastern province of Diyala. Baghdad's government denies the allegations stressing that the killings were the result of deeply-rooted internal disputes among MKO members. “Those MKO members might have got killed due to their objection against the Iraqi government’s will and in the course of a resulting dispute.” the Iranian intelligence minister said on Sunday. Alavi reiterated that the Iraqi government and MKO have long-term differences. Iraqi officials and the terrorist MKO gave conflicting reports about the clashes and explosions that took place at Camp of New Iraq (formerly known as Camp Ashraf) in the eastern Diyala Province on Sunday. It was not immediately clear what caused the blasts and clashes at the camp. The MKO claimed that Iraqis had entered the place and set it on fire, killing 50 of its members. However, Iraqi officials denied any involvement in the incident. Ali al-Moussawi, a spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, confirmed that some MKO members had been killed, but said the deaths were the result of infighting among the camp residents. The MKO was a long-standing member of the US State Department’s list of terrorist organizations, but after heavy lobbying the group was dropped from the list last year. The group was allied to Saddam Hussein and retains a significant presence at Camp Liberty, and formerly at Camp Ashraf (its main training camp) during the US occupation. The MKO group, founded in the 1960s, blended elements of Islamism and Stalinism and participated in the overthrow of the US-backed Shah of Iran in 1979. Ahead of the revolution, the MKO conducted attacks and assassinations against both Iranian and Western targets. The group started assassination of the citizens and officials after the revolution in a bid to take control of the newly-established Islamic Republic. It killed several of Iran's new leaders in the early years after the revolution, including the then President Mohammad Ali Rajayee, Prime Minister Mohammad Javad Bahonar and Judiciary Chief Mohammad Hossein Beheshti who were killed in bomb attacks by MKO members in 1981. The group fled to Iraq in 1986, where it was protected by Saddam Hussein and where it helped the Iraqi dictator suppress Shiite and Kurd uprisings in the country. The terrorist group joined Saddam's army during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988) and helped Saddam and killed thousands of Iranian civilians and soldiers during the US-backed Iraqi imposed war on Iran. Since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the group, which now adheres to a pro-free-market philosophy, has been strongly backed by neo-conservatives in the United States, who eventually took the MKO off the US terror list. The US formally removed the MKO from its list of terror organizations in early September 2012, one week after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent the US Congress a classified communication about the move. The decision made by Clinton enabled the group to have its assets under US jurisdiction unfrozen and do business with American entities, the State Department said in a statement at the time. In September 2012, the last groups of the MKO terrorists left Camp Ashraf, their main training center in Iraq's Diyala province. They have been transferred to Camp Liberty which lies Northeast of the Baghdad International Airport.