BAGHDAD – Rockets tore into a
former US military base near the Baghdad airport before dawn on
Saturday, killing at least five members of a controversial Iranian
dissident group and wounding almost 40 other people, according to the
UN.
The group, the Mujahadeen al-Khalq or People’s Mujahadeen,
said a sixth member died of injuries in what they called an
Iranian-sponsored attack facilitated by the Iraqi government.
“This
is an area very close to the airport surrounded by military units…How
could someone get close enough and have the freedom and liberty to shoot
30 missiles into the camp?” said Hossain Madani, a camp leader reached
by phone.
He said the six dead included five men and one woman,
all of whom he said had completed interviews with the UN refugee agency
and were awaiting resettlement.
The top UN official in Iraq said he was "deeply shocked" by the attack.
"It
is now important for the government to form an investigation committee
and to ensure that safety and security are ensured in the future because
it is very important that the resettlement process goes on," Martin
Kobler, special representative to the UN secretary general, told
al-Jazeera.
Kobler last year negotiated an agreement between the
MEK and the Iraqi government to close Camp Ashraf, the MEK’s last
remaining base, after 28 members of the group were killed in an
operation by the Iraqi army to force them to leave.
The agreement
includes a commitment by the Iraqi government to ensure the group’s
security. As part of the agreement, all but 100 of the group’s members
were relocated to Camp Liberty – renamed "Camp Freedom" by the Iraqi
government.
The organisation’s members live in the trailers left behind by the US military in a compound guarded by Iraqi police.
The
group of about 3,000 people is the last remaining legacy of the heavily
armed opposition invited to Iraq by Saddam Hussein to help fight Iran.
After the 2003 invasion, they gave up their weapons but remained at Camp
Ashraf, close to the Iranian border.
The Iranian government has
put pressure on Iraq since 2003 to close the camp and Iraqi officials
have emphasised that the MEK members have no legal status in Iraq.
Designation by the UN refugee agency as persons in need of protection
now allows them to be resettled in other countries.
The US state
department recently agreed to remove the MEK from its list of terrorist
organisations, a move that was believed to have been made in response to
the Paris-based organisation agreeing to close Camp Ashraf.
Hundreds
of the group’s members have ties to Germany, France and other
countries. While many of them have devoted their lives to fighting the
Iranian government, hundreds of them who grew up abroad have never been
to Iran. The organisation keeps very tight control on its members,
limiting access to families outside. Men and women are segregated and
many of those inside the camp have children raised by MEK members
abroad.
Rocket and mortar attacks against the airport complex have
been rare since US forces pulled out of the country two years ago.
Extensive defense systems were installed at the airport itself to detect
and deter attacks. 'Impossible to prevent'
Iraqi
security spokesmen said the rockets had been launched from Abu Ghraib, a
Sunni area in west Baghdad. A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence
said it would have been impossible to prevent.
“It’s true we are
responsible for protecting the perimeter of the camp but we can’t
control indirect fire,” Mohammed al-Askari told al-Jazeera. “Even if
it’s a bird that’s been attacked they will accuse the Iraqi government.
The country is being threatened by al-Qaeda, Baathists and militias and
we are doing our job.”
The organisation said the attack was proof they should be allowed to return to Camp Ashraf.
"Camp Liberty was a failed project," said Madani.
In
the three decades since Saddam Hussein invited in the MEK, the
organisation turned the camp in Diyala province into a small city with a
college, a museum, gardens and their own cemetery. For the Paris-based
MEK, it was the last remnant of their once significant presence in Iraq.
In
the agreement to close the camp, 100 of its members have remained there
until the group reaches agreement with the Iraqi government on selling
off what the MEK says are $500m in assets including buildings, and
“Diyala authorities have called it a pearl of the desert,” said Madani.
The
disagreement over the assets and hostility between the MEK and the
Iraqi government threatens to further complicate the MEK’s withdrawal
from Camp Ashraf.
“The United Nations for obvious reasons does not get involved in buying or selling their property,” said Kobler.
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