Back to Brief on Iran
BAGHDAD - A missile struck an Iranian dissident group's camp in southeastern Iraq, killing at least five people and wounding several others, Iraqi authorities and Iranian dissidents said Wednesday.
The missile hit the Habib camp of the Iranian dissident group the Mujahedeen Khalq early Tuesday near the border, said Farid Soleimani, a spokesman for the group.
Soleimani blamed the attack on Iran, saying it was a reaction to Khatami's "failed trip" to France last week.
The Mujahedeen staged repeated protests during Khatami's visit to France, unfurling a banner reading "Down with Khatami" from the top of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
Massoud Rajavi, commander of the National Liberation Army -- the Mujahedeen's military arm -- called on the United Nations to condemn the latest attack and send a mission to inspect the site.
The Mujahedeen has 35,000 dissidents
in 20 camps in Iraq's eastern provinces. The camps are equipped with tanks,
artillery and helicopters.
Scud Attack by Mullahs’ Regime, Reuters, November 3
An Iranian opposition group accused Iran on Wednesday of firing Scud missiles at their camp in southern Iraq, killing five people.
Mujahideen Khalq spokesman Fareed Suleimani said several more people were wounded when the missiles hit Camp Habib on Tuesday night. The camp is 22 miles from the Iranian border.
"At first assessment of the explosion, five members of Mujahideen were killed and several others were injured," Suleimani told Reuters. "We have been told by the Iraqi authorities that Iran fired Scud missiles at Camp Habib last night."
["While condemning this aggression on its lands and sovereignty, Iraq maintains the right to respond at the time it sees proper," an Iraqi spokesman told the official news agency INA.]
He said Tuesday's attack was the "80th terrorist operation by the clerical regime against the Iranian Resistance on Iraqi territory since 1993.''
A Mujahideen statement later said:
"A number of Iraqi nationals were also killed or wounded near the Habib
base camp."
Act of Vengeance By Mullahs' Regime And Khatami, Iran Zamin News Agency, November 3
Last night the clerical regime launched a missile attack on National Liberation Army of Iran's Habib base camp, 45km north of Basra and 35km from the Iranian border.
The Shrapnel and the wave of the explosion killed five Mojahedin members and wounded several more working in the vicinity inside the base. The slain Mojahedin were Hamid Ahrar, Mohammad-Reza Dalir, Abbas Forough-Zadeh, Hamid Dana'i and Rouhollah Safa-Bakhsh.
Mr. Massoud Rajavi, President of the National Council of Resistance and Commander in Chief of the National Liberation Army of Iran, underscored the unalienable right of the Iranian Resistance to respond.
He called on the United Nations Secretary General, the Security Council and the current session of the General Assembly, to condemn this most recent crime by the clerics and take urgent and effective measures to confront their unbridled terrorism.
Mr. Rajavi also reiterated the long-standing
demand of the Iranian people and Resistance for the trial of the clerical
regime's leaders before an international tribunal and the decisive expulsion
and boycott of this illegitimate regime.
Tehran Accused in Khobar Bombing, NBC Nightly News, November 2
WASHINGTON - … When Khobar Towers, an American military residence in Saudi Arabia, was bombed more than three years ago, 19 Americans were killed and another 400 injured. President Bill Clinton pledged revenge.
"We will not rest in our efforts to find who is responsible for this outrage, to pursue them and to punish them," Clinton said at the time.
Now, three years later, top intelligence and law enforcement officials tell NBC News that a new eyewitness has come forward who can prove that Iran's official intelligence service ordered the attack, hired the bombers and then gave them safe haven. That would be impossible without the express knowledge of Iran's government, U.S. officials said.
The news prompted Senate investigators to ask on Tuesday, why isn't Iran being punished? Some suggested the White House was intentionally going easy on Iran.
"I am also worried about what appears to be a tacit compact between the Clinton administration and the Saudis not to finger the Iranians for the Khobar towers bombing," Republican Sen. Sam Brownback said…
"We have information that links Iranian officials to the Khobar bombing incident," said Michael Sheehan, the State Department's coordinator for counter-terrorism. "The FBI has that information, the intelligence community has that information."…