Iraqi forces storm MKO camp

TEHRAN/BAGHDAD - On Tuesday, Iraqi soldiers and riot police stormed Camp Ashraf, where Mojahedin Khalq Organization members had been based, triggering violent clashes that left at least 260 people injured.

Iraqi officials say clashes broke out as they were trying to establish a police post in the camp.

“After the failure of negotiations with the Mojahedin (Khalq) to enter peacefully, the Iraqi army entered Camp Ashraf with force and it now controls the interior and all entrances to the camp,” an Iraqi military source said.

An Iraqi army spokesman in Diyala said two battalions of 400 soldiers each plus 200 riot police took part in Tuesday's operation, which was ordered by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's office.

“It is our territory and our right to enter, to impose Iraqi law on everybody,” a defense ministry spokesman told al-Arabiya television.

Camp Ashraf, 40 miles north of Baghdad in Diyala province, houses 3,418 residents. It was set up in the 1980s, when Iraq was at war with Iran, as a base to operate against the Iranian government.

The camp was disarmed by U.S. soldiers following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. U.S. soldiers had overseen the camp until handing over control three months ago to Iraqi security forces.

Aligining with the MEK even temporarily or "using them as tools" only tarnishes the US. It didn't take much doing by the mullahs to thoroughly discredit the MEK in the eyes of Iranians. The MEK through their actions, chiefly allying with Saddam, brought that upon itself.

Their track record of killing Americans and pro-American Iranians plus their Marxist-Islamist ideology which to make matters worse has become a cultist pseudo-religious adulation of the Rajavi gang is reason enough to let them go to the dogs.

I'm also not to sure about their "intelligence value". A group of shady and dubious background as the MEK certainly isn't averse to feeding false information. I'd rather trust Chalabi on Iraq.

There are some 70,000 MEK adherents inside Iran and other than their philosophy they are part of the general public and do not walk around with a brand on their foreheads.

Sort of like our aging hippies... 70,000 dunno... a small number for Iran, but without anyone able to confirm such estimates about Iran with certainty, I still doubt it.

At their height after the Revolution, the MEK had 20,000 plus "folks on the street" most of which were exiled or killed. Having some old-time sympathisants doesn't translate directly to "feet on the ground".

Also after selling out to Saddam they lost many of their following. Westerners and the MEK itself are overestimating their clout vastly.

can later be set aside fairly easily as “killers”, since they would wipe the Mullahs off the face of Iran in revenge.

Way to go to win the Mullahs sympathies. If the MEK feels the need to kill mullahs... please only suicide attacks.

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