Members of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq were welcomed into Iraq by Saddam Hussein in the 1980s during the brutal war with neighboring Iran.
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Twelve katyusha rockets landed in Camp Liberty, a former United States air base converted into a temporary refuge for those exiled from Iran in 2011.
A spokesman for the Mujahedin said the attack was the worst to have targeted the camp so far, and claimed that several people were killed but could not say how many.
Photo from Camp Liberty resident.
Under pressure from Washington, Baghdad agreed to relocate over 3,000 MEK members from Ashraf camp in Diyala province to Liberty Camp in 2012 as the USA government removed the MEK from its list of terrorist organizations the same year. One of the sources, based at the airport, said flights had been suspended as a precautionary measure, but state television quoted a source as saying air traffic had not been interrupted.
Iraq’s current Shiite-led Iraqi government, which has strengthened ties with Tehran, considers their presence in the country illegal. A hospital official confirmed the casualty figures.
“Fifteen rockets were fired from Bakriya around and on the edge of Camp Liberty”, Baghdad operations command said, adding that police found the truck the rockets were fired from.
Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran, the parent organisation of Mujahideen-e Khalq, blamed the attack on Iran.
The U.S. remains committed to assisting the United Nations in the relocation of all Camp Hurriya residents “to a permanent and safe location outside of Iraq”, according to the statement.
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“We are consulting with the Government of Iraq to ascertain the full extent of this unprovoked attack”, the statement said.
