December 06-2013
Iraq is hunting militants, though it doesn’t say who they are, who led a deadly attack on the Mojahedin-e Khalq camp near Baghdad in September. The government dismisses suggestions its own security forces were behind the violence, though the Mojahedin say that’s who the attackers really were.
A total of 53 people were killed at Camp Ashraf in an attack the United Nations described as “an atrocious crime” and which drew condemnation from the United States and Britain. The assailants took time to conduct execution-style killings and plant bombs.
Haider al-Akaili, who is part of a government committee overseeing the investigation, which was demanded by the UN, told Reuters, “The main thing that the investigations have revealed so far is that the Iraqi security forces were not involved in that attack and an unknown militant group was behind it.”
Iraqi officials have repeatedly denied any involvement in the attack, in which seven camp residents also disappeared. The Mojahedin say the seven were taken hostage by Iraqi forces and were flown to Amara province to be turned over to Iran.
Akaili, who is an official in Iraq’s Ministry of Human Rights, denied this: “Pictures of the alleged missing persons have been circulated to airports and checkpoints and we have not received any news about any of them,” he said.
Akaili added that 53 people had been killed, not 52 as originally reported by the UN, which said its representatives had seen corpses with gunshot wounds and some with their hands tied. The additional victim had not been reported until now because his face had been burned and he had not been previously identifiable as a camp member, Akaili said.
Iraq has issued 148 arrest warrants for members of the group for crimes against Iraqis since 1991, but none has been arrested, according to officials.
Akaili raised the possibility that there had been a dispute within the camp and some of the attackers had come from inside. Another scenario was that the seven missing people were behind the assault, he said.
The Mojahedin numbered 4,174 members who surrendered to the US Army in Iraq in 2003, he said. The UN has resettled some 1,000—mostly members who asked to go back to Iran. He said 1,600 have refused to meet with UN officials and are not therefore eligible for refugee resettlement. About 1,500 others have filed refugee papers and been given refugee status. The UN is now looking for countries to take them in.
