BAGHDAD, Iraq - A pickup truck loaded with explosives blew up today near two buses, one of them carrying members of an Iranian exile opposition group, killing seven and injuring 37, a spokesman for the group said.

The morning explosion occurred near a hospital in a northern suburb of Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, Farid Soleimani of the Iraq-based Mujahedeen Khalq group told The Associated Press.

He said the group holds the "clerical regime of Iran's Intelligence Ministry" responsible for the attack.

Among the dead were six senior members of the group, including Fariba Mouzarmi, a candidate for membership in the Mujahedeen's leadership council, Soleimani said. Some of the 21 injured Iranians were in serious condition, he said.

The explosion also killed an Iraqi and injured 16 others traveling in a separate bus that was passing by at the time of the explosion, Soleimani said.

A statement issued by Massoud Rajavi, the group's leader, said the opposition has a right to respond and defend itself against the "religious, terrorist dictatorship ruling Iran."

On Saturday, two bomb blasts apparently intended to damage the Mujahedeen headquarters in Baghdad instead slightly injured a teen-ager and damaged other buildings and cars.

The Mujahedeen Khalq, which has a close relationship with the Iraqi government, has more than 30,000 militarily trained men and women in 17 camps near the Iranian border. The group's fighters often target Iranian government sites.
 
 

Car Bomb Kills Six Iranian Opposition Fighters In Iraq, 36 Wounded, Agence France Presse, June 9

BAGHDAD - A car bomb killed six members of Iran's armed opposition on a bus and wounded at least 36 more people near the Iraqi capital Wednesday, the People's Mujahedeen group said, blaming Tehran for the attack.

It said two of 23 wounded Mujahedeen fighters died in hospital, while four more were killed on the spot.

A spokesman for the group said a parked car exploded as the fighters were being bussed out of Baghdad. The attack took place 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the capital en route to the Mujahedeen's Ashraf camp further north.

A senior woman militant and candidate for the organization's command council, 36-year-old Fariba Mozarmi, was among the dead as well as a second Mujahedeen woman.

A busload of Iraqis on the other side of the road was also hit and at least 15 people were hurt, the spokesman said.

The Mujahedeen's bus was "completely destroyed and the blast left behind an enormous crater two meters (more than six feet) deep and three meters (10 feet) wide," he told AFP.

"The blast also damaged several other vehicles and smashed windows of buildings and houses in a radius of 200 meters (yards)," the group's spokesman added.

He blamed "terrorists sent by the Iranian regime" for the attack and charged that the Iranian embassy in Baghdad was involved.

It was the 24th attack carried out by Iranian agents since moderate cleric Mohammad Khatami was elected as Iran's president in May 1997, according to the Mujahedeen, and the 75th in the last six years.

Mujahedeen leader Massud Rajavi issued a call for UN chief Kofi Annan "to take urgent measures to halt the crimes of the mullahs outside Iran" and urged Baghdad to close down the Iranian embassy.

The Mujahedeen, which has been based in Iraq since 1986 and mounts cross-border raids, regularly accuses Iran of attacks. Two bombs exploded near its Baghdad headquarters on Saturday, without causing casualties, it said.

At a Baghdad meeting in mid-May, the Mujahedeen leadership set a target of May 2001 for the overthrow of the Tehran government. In April, its fighters assassinated a top Iranian general outside his Tehran home.

Representative James Traficant (D-OH) will also be present at this briefing to denounce this heinous act and express his sympathies for the families of the victims.

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