The terrorist Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), which settled here during the rule of Saddam Hussein, faces an uncertain future following attempts to force them out of the new Iraq. The MKO, which has carried out armed attacks to try to destabilize Tehran's government, counts about 4,000 members at its camp here, 115 kilometers (71 miles) northeast of Baghdad. The group settled here during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. Iraqi leaders are agitating to get rid of the group, considered a terrorist organization by the United States and European Union. Iraq's former Governing Council, dissolved on June 1 to make way for the caretaker government that is to take power at the end of the month, announced in late 2003 that it would expel the group but the plan was never put into practice. Abdallah Hassan, governor of Diyala province, said he was "sure that the new government will support them". The MKO agreed to disarm in May 2003, following a deal made with the U.S.-led coalition occupying Iraq. In exchange, the coalition agreed to offer their protection.
| Now they're being held as a club over the heads of the ayatollahs, and maybe as the nucleus of an Iranian invasion force. |
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