BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iranian warplanes crossed into Iraq and bombed two Iranian rebel bases Monday, injuring two Iraqi civilians, rebels said.

Iran did not immediately confirm the raid against strongholds of the Mujahedeen Khalq, or People's Warriors, who have fought since the 1980s to oust Iran's hard-line Islamic regime….

Rebel spokesman Ali Safavi said the attacks were simultaneous, with five Phantom fighter-bombers striking a base near the city of Kut, 105 miles southeast of Baghdad, and four jets hitting a base 81 miles northeast of the capital.

In response, U.N. officials overseeing an oil-for-food program in Iraq pulled their observers out of the areas where the air raids took place.

Reporters taken to the site after the attack said two more Iranian warplanes flew over the camp but did not drop any bombs…

The city of Kut is inside a southern "no-fly" zone set up by the United States and its allies after the 1991 Persian Gulf War to protect Iraqi minorities… The area around Kut is patrolled by U.S. and British jets….

Iran has launched several attacks on Mujahedeen and Kurdish opposition bases in Iraq since the Persian Gulf War. Iranian missiles attacked Camp Ashraf, a major Mujahedeen base northeast of Baghdad, in 1994 after targeting it during bombing raids in 1992 and 1993.

The Iranians also launched an air attack on Kurdish bases in Iraq in 1993.

The Ashraf camp is one of at least five bases maintained in Iraq by the Mujahedeen Khalq's military wing, the National Liberation Army, and its 30,000 troops.

Air Strikes Against NLA Basecamps, Iran Zamin News Agency, September 29 

At 7:00 a.m. on Monday, September 29, five Phantom and Tiger fighter jets of the mullahs' regime heavily bombarded one of National Liberation Army basecamps near the city of Kut (170 kms southeast of Baghdad). This basecamp is located in the no-fly zone, south of the 33 parallel.

Simultaneously, the regime raided another NLA basecamp near the town of Jalula (130 kms northeast of Baghdad) with four other fighter jets. In this air strike, the planes had crossed the no-fly zone in northern Iraq…

Mr. Massoud Rajavi, President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran and Commander in Chief of the National Liberation Army, sent a telegram to the Secretary General and members of the U.N. Security Council, urging them to condemn this terrorist attack which violates, among others, the U.N. Security Council resolution 598.

Mr. Rajavi emphasized that the silence and inaction of the Security Council towards the mullahs' aggressive and criminal attacks, including its air raids on NLA on April 92 and May 93, and its Scud-B missile attack in November 94, have so emboldened the regime that it systematically uses the no-fly zone - controlled by the permanent members of the Security Council - for its aggressions.

Mr. Rajavi said today's air raids reflect the Khomeini regime's desperation in confronting the Iranian public's increasing support for the Resistance and its President-elect. Mr. Rajavi added that the regime, beset by crises and internal feuding, finds itself in dire need of repression at home and aggressive and terrorist operations outside its borders.

Iran Planes Hit Rebel Bases, Reuter, September 29

… Earlier on Monday, the Iranian opposition group Mujahideen Khalq said the raids targeted their two camps, one near the city of Kut, 103 miles southeast of Baghdad, and the other near Jalwlaa, 130 km northeast of Baghdad. "The raids caused no casualties among the (Mujahideen Khalq's) fighters but there are casualties among Iraqi civilians because some of the bombs hit Iraqi residential areas near these camps," the group's spokesman, Mohammad Mohaddessin, said. The group's bases in Iraq has been the target of air and rocket attacks by Tehran. Their office in Baghdad, now ringed by a concrete wall, has weathered mortar and bomb attacks. Mujahideen said their leader, Massoud Rajavi, sent letters to the U.N. secretary-general and members of the Security Council "urging them to condemn this terrorist attack."…

U.S. Reaction to Air Strike, Dow Jones News, September 29

NEW YORK - The U.S. does not support the reported attack of Iranian planes on two Iranian opposition bases in Iraq, State Department Spokesman James P. Rubin said Monday…. [Dow Jones News also reported that "Iran on Monday confirmed the attack on two military bases of an Iranian opposition group inside Iraq]

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