BAGHDAD — Iraqi authorities raided the camp of a small Iranian opposition group living in the north of Iraq on Tuesday, killing at least four of the group’s members in a spate of clashes that ensued, members of the group said.
At Camp Ashraf in the northern province of Diyala, about 3,400 members of the Mujahadeen-e-Khalq group went on a hunger strike following what they called a “brutal” raid that targeted unarmed members of their organization.
Since the U.S. handed control of the camp to Iraqi authorities Jan. 1, Iraq has increased efforts to push the group out.
U.S. officials were promised that the cultlike MEK organization on the U.S. list of terrorist groups would be treated “humanely” under Iraqi authority.
The MEK, which fought the Iranian regime from Iraqi soil under Saddam Hussein, is said to have been disarmed by U.S. forces after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003. The group was never forced to leave and had been protected by the U.S. forces until this year.
The MEK is lobbying to remain in the self-sustained camp north of Baghdad and fear returning to Iran, where members say they’d be killed.
