MeK: Iraqi Troops Attacked Camp Ashraf, Killed 52

Claims Troops Burned Camp, Killed Scores

The Mujahedin-e Khalq (MeK) has claimed a major attack on their exile camp in Iraq’s Diyala Province, Camp Ashraf, saying the troops attacked the camp and killed 52.

Their version of the story is that the troops attacked the camp out of nowhere, set fires and killed the people and then left. Iraqi officials deny all of these claims, and while hospital officials claim two Iraqi soldiers killed by camp residents, they had no information on casualties inside the camp itself.

This isn’t the first time Camp Ashraf has been an issue between the MeK, a formerly US-listed terrorist organization with eyes on violent regime change in Iran, as the current Iraqi government enjoys good relations with Iran and wants the camp evacuated. If confirmed this would be by far the single large incident of violence within the camp in years, and rivaling an early 2011 raid which saw 34 killed and 318 wounded.

The MeK has had a site at Ashraf since 1986, when it was welcomed by Saddam Hussein’s government and used as an auxiliary during the Iran-Iraq War. The group has had its residents steadily resettled from the camp for years, with the Iraqi government hoping to see them removed from the nation outright.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.