IranIraqSyria

MKO Planning Massive Terrorist Operation in Syria


Informed sources revealed on Monday that the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO also known as the MEK, PMOI and NCR) is preparing itself to stage a massive terrorist operation in Syria.

“We hold proof and authentic documents showing an extensive and all-round presence of this terrorist organization in Syria. This terrorist grouplet is using all its possibilities to stage terrorist and sabotage operations in Syria,” Seyed Mohammad Javad Hasheminejad, secretary-general of Habilian Association – a human rights group formed of the families of 17,000 Iranian terror victims -told the Syrian ambassador to Tehran on Monday.

Hasheminejad reminded that the MKO has been acting as a US mercenary ever since the fall of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hossein in 2003, and added, “The US and some western countries have been supporting all those terrorists who stage large-scale sabotage operations in Syria.”

He reiterated the United States’ destructive role in recent developments in Syria, and said, “The MKO has even produced many video clips against President Bashar Assad on Syrian soil and has been distributing these clips among the people.”

He reminded the MKO’s aid and assistance to Saddam Hussein in quelling the Shiite and Kurd uprisings in Iraq in the 1990s, and said in the last few years Habilian has held meetings with tens of Iraqi groups and presented them with authentic documents proving MKO’s direct role in the massacre of the Kurds and Shiites in Iraq under Saddam.

“As we presented such substantiating information and documents to the Iraqi government officials, we will present you with documents and proof about the Hypocrites (as the MKO members are called in Iran) meddling in Syria,” he said.

The MKO’s main stronghold was a training center called Camp Ashraf in Iraq’s Northern Diyala province, but the post-Saddam Iraq decided to close the camp specially due to the MKO’s massacre of Iraqi Shiites during the Saddam era and its terrorist operations against Iran in the last 33 years. Iraq started expelling the group a few months ago.

The MKO is seeking to transfer its members to another country, but no world state, including the US and the European countries, accept to lodge the terrorist group.

To date, almost 1200 MKO terrorists have been transferred from Camp Ashraf to Camp Liberty which lies Northeast of the Baghdad International Airport, in three groups of 400 each, on February 18, 8, and March 20. About 2,000 members still remain in Camp Ashraf. Camp Liberty is a transient settlement facility and a last station for the MKO in Iraq.

The MKO cannot find a shelter outside Iraq because it is blacklisted by much of the international community, including the United States.

Before an overture by the EU, the MKO was on the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations subject to an EU-wide assets freeze. Yet, the MKO puppet leader, Maryam Rajavi, who has residency in France, regularly visited Brussels and despite the ban enjoyed full freedom in Europe.

The MKO is behind a slew of assassinations and bombings inside Iran, a number of EU parliamentarians said in a recent letter in which they slammed a British court decision to remove the MKO from the British terror list. The EU officials also added that the group has no public support within Iran because of their role in helping Saddam Hussein in the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988).

Many of the MKO members abandoned the terrorist organization while most of those still remaining in Camp Ashraf are said to be willing to quit but are under pressure and torture not to do so.

A May 2005 Human Rights Watch report accused the MKO of running prison camps in Iraq and committing human rights violations.

According to the Human Rights Watch report, the outlawed group puts defectors under torture and jail terms.

The 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.

Leaders of the group have been fighting to shed its terrorist tag after a series of bloody anti-Western attacks in the 1970s, and nearly 30 years of violent struggle against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

In recent years, high-ranking MKO members have been lobbying governments around the world in the hope of acknowledgement as a legitimate opposition group.

The UK initiative, however, prompted the European Union to establish relations with the exiled organization now based in Paris. The European Court of First Instance threw its weight behind the MKO in December and annulled its previous decision to freeze its funds.

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 the 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 also argue for the MKO to be taken off the US terror list.

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