BAGHDAD - Dozens of fighters were killed as Iranian forces launched a cross-border attack on opposition bases inside Iraq, in the biggest such raid for several years, Iran's main armed opposition group said Monday.

The People's Mujahedeen said five of its fighters were killed as well as "dozens of enemy agents" after Iranian Revolutionary Guards militiamen and interior ministry forces launched the attack on Sunday.

The raid targeted two Mujahedeen bases near the small Iraqi town of Tarsaq along the central sector of the border, it said. The bases were attacked with 82mm mortars…

It said the confrontation spread over an area of 150 square kilometers (60 square miles) and "turned into hand-to-hand combat at some points" before the Iranian forces retreated back across the border.

"Despite their large numbers, the Guards suffered heavy casualties ... The corpses of several of them were scattered on the scene and others were transferred into Iran," it said in a statement.

A source at the Iraq-based opposition group said it was the biggest Iranian attack in the border region "for several years."

In a simultaneous attack on Sunday, Iranian forces fired RPG-18 rockets at a patrol of the People's Mujahedeen near the city of Kut, also along the central sector of the border, the Mujahedeen said.

The Mujahedeen "opened fire on the terrorists who fled before firing all their rockets. None of the rockets hit their targets and none of the combatants was harmed," it said.

On September 29, Iranian warplanes attacked Mujahedeen bases inside Iraq, triggering a protest from Baghdad which called for the lifting of a Western-patrolled "no-fly zone" over the south of the country.

[Also, a statement by the Mojahedin said: "Twelve hours after the Mojahedin announced the attack, the mullahs' regime admitted the outbreak of extensive clashes saying that three forces including the regime's military troops, the State Security Forces, and the Intelligence Ministry agents had participated in this operation.

"The clerical regime also admitted that one of its top torturers and head of the Intelligence Ministry's prison, Hossein Hosseinzadeh, had been killed."]

Now Regime Tortures Its Own, Agence France Presse, March 2

TEHRAN - Accusations by Tehran city officials that they were tortured in police detention have for the first time publicly sullied the reputations of two pillars of the Islamic republic, the police and the courts.

The accusations have taken on an unprecedented political dimension since they were made last week by municipal officials during a meeting with parliamentary deputies close to Iranian President Mohammad Khatami….

The storm over the torture charges is the latest chapter in the ongoing battle between religious conservatives and the controversial mayor of Tehran, whom the conservatives consider their bete noire….

The public scandal over the police and court system again shows the intensity of the political struggle being waged here between the two principal political-religious factions in Iran's Islamic government.

The police are under the control of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of the Islamic republic. Khamenei delegated that power to the interior minister of the previous conservative government, but has not done so with the new interior minister, Abdollah Nuri….

Clash of Regime's Supporters Near Tehran University, Reuter, March 2

TEHRAN - Students loyal to Iranian President Mohammad Khatami clashed with hardliners outside Tehran University on Monday, prompting security forces to make arrests and disperse a crowd approaching 5,000 people.

Clashes broke out when hardline members of the Ansar-e Hezbollah group tried to disrupt a rally by students affiliated with Daftar-e Tahkim Vahdat (Office to Foster Unity) and the Islamic Society of University Students….

Tension broke out when around 15 members of Ansar-e Hezbollah, which tends to reflect conservative opinion in the Islamic republic, pushed into the crowd and shouted "Death to liberals," …

Daftar-e Tahkim staged the rally to protest against the rejection of their candidates to run in coming parliamentary by-elections, the official IRNA news agency reported. The by-elections, scheduled for March 15, are expected to become a major showdown between… factions….
 

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