Mortar Attacks Kill 7, injure 50 at MKO’s Camp in Iraq

Dozens of mortars and rockets fired on a camp housing Iranian dissidents near Baghdad killed five members of the terrorist group early on Saturday, Iraqi security officials said.

The United Nations called for an immediate investigation and said monitors were following up on deaths. Five members of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MKO) were killed by the mortars and rockets, two Iraqi security officials said on condition of anonymity. Between 39 and 40 members of the group were wounded, along with three Iraqi policemen.

The MEK, whose leadership is based in Paris, said in a statement that six people were killed and 50 wounded. One Iraqi security official said around 40 rockets and mortars were fired into the camp, while the MEK said 35 were launched. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the attack.

The United Nations said its special envoy Martin Kobler had asked Iraqi authorities to “promptly conduct an investigation into this,” and added, “we have our monitors on the ground to follow-up.”

The mortars struck at a transit camp known as Camp Liberty where some 3,000 residents from the MEK were moved last year, on Iraq’s insistence, from their historic paramilitary camp of the 1980s — Camp Ashraf.