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| Iraq |
| Iran exiles claim 44 dead in Iraq raid on camp |
| 2013-09-02 |
| Clashes and explosions were reported in a camp housing Iranian exiles northeast of Baghdad on Sunday, but Iraqi officials denied allegations they killed 44 of the group’s members in an offensive. The People’s Mujahedeen Organisation of Iran (PMOI), about 100 of whose members are living at Camp Ashraf in Diyala province near the Iranian border, also claimed security forces set fire to the group’s property in the camp. Local hospitals reported two Iraqi soldiers were killed and three were wounded, which officials attributed to angry camp residents attacking an army brigade responsible for the camp. Medics did not, however, report any casualties among Ashraf residents. The United Nations did not confirm any of the varying accounts of Sunday’s unrest, but the UN refugee agency said “it appears that deadly force has been used and that a number of people have been killed or wounded”. The UNHCR said it “strongly condemns this attack,” adding that “the use of violence against a civilian population is unacceptable in any circumstances.” The UN’s mission to Iraq said it was looking into the unrest, and called on the Iraqi government to investigate the incident. Officials and Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK) spokespeople gave wildly differing accounts of the unrest on Sunday and it was not immediately clear what caused the explosions and clashes, or the extent of the casualties. Iraqi police and medical sources said five mortars hit the camp. A police colonel said that in the aftermath of the rockets “some angry Ashraf residents came out and attacked the brigade protecting the camp, killing two soldiers and wounding three in clashes”. A doctor at the main hospital in provincial capital Baquba confirmed the toll. An Iraqi official responsible for overseeing the camp said the blasts were caused not by mortars but by oil and gas containers exploding inside Ashraf. “Not a single soldier entered Camp Ashraf,” said Haqi Al Sharifi. “There was no attack from outside against the camp, but what seems to have happened is that some barrels of oil and gas inside Ashraf exploded. The police are investigating.” |
| Posted by:Steve White |