BAGHDAD: The head of a new Shia militant group in Iraq yesterday threatened to carry out more attacks on a camp for Iranian exiles that was struck by dozens of rockets and mortar shells earlier this month.
Seven people were killed in the February 9 attack on the camp near Baghdad airport that houses members of Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, or MEK, the militant wing of a Paris-based Iranian opposition group. Iraq’s government, which maintains friendly ties with Tehran, considers the MEK a terrorist group and wants its members out of the country.
Yesterday’s comments from Wathiq Al Batat suggest he shares the government’s goal, even if he disagrees with its handling of the exiles. In a phone interview with The Associated Press, Al Batat said his newly formed Mukhtar Army group was behind the attack and promised more attacks to come.
“It is time for the people of the MEK to leave Iraq. We have demanded that the government kick the group out of the country, but the Iraqi government did not respond positively to our demand,” he said. “We will strike them again until they leave.”
It was not possible to independently confirm Al Batat’s claim that his group was behind the attacks, but Iraqi officials and MEK members say they are taking his threats seriously. No other groups have taken responsibility.
“Mukhtar Army” appeared on threatening leaflets delivered to Sunni households in a Baghdad neighbourhood last week warning residents to leave or face grave consequences.
The MEK opposes Iran’s clerical regime and has carried out assassinations and bombings in Iran. It fought alongside Saddam Hussein’s forces in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, and several thousand of its members were given sanctuary in Iraq. It renounced violence in 2001. The Obama administration took it off the US terrorism list last September.
The refugee camp is located on a former American military base known as Camp Liberty. It is meant to be a temporary way station while the United Nations works to relocate the
exiles abroad.
MEK members reluctantly began moving to Camp Liberty last year. They previously lived in a compound known as Camp Ashraf in northeastern Iraq. It was twice raided by Iraqi security forces, leaving more than three dozen people dead.
Al Batat was a senior official in the Hezbollah Brigades, which is believed to be funded and trained by Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard. It was among the Shia militias that targeted US military bases months before troops pulled out in December 2011.
Earlier this month, he announced he was forming a new group known as the Mukhtar Army. He continues to use the Hezbollah name as well, suggesting he is trying to claim rightful leadership of that group. It is unclear what links, if any, he maintains with Iraq’s Hezbollah.
AP
