BAGHDAD - The armed Iranian opposition group Mujahideen Khalq said on Monday Iranian government agents had attacked one of its bases in Iraq.

Iranian forces fired 107mm rockets at Camp Mouzarmi, southwest of the city of Amarah and about 222 miles south of Baghdad early on Monday, the group said in a statement.

"The camp's patrol units returned fire with a barrage of mortars, forcing the terrorists to flee the scene," it said. "The Mujahideen sustained no casualties."

It said Mujahideen Khalq reserved the right to respond and asked United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the Security Council to condemn the Iranian government.

The attack was the 97th reported since 1993, it said.

Mujahideen bases have been the target of air and rocket attacks by Iran. Their office in Baghdad, ringed by a concrete wall, has survived several mortar and bomb attacks.
 

Tehran Paper Condemns Emirati TV for Program on the Iranian Resistance, Agence France Presse, July 24

TEHRAN - The daily Entekhab Monday accused United Arab Emirates television of launching an anti-Iranian propaganda campaign "under the direct influence of the Iraqi secret services."

The paper attacked UAE television for "its substantial coverage" from Baghdad of the activities of the People's Mujahedeen, the main armed opposition to the Islamic regime in Iran.

Entekhab said "not only have the UAE leaders not taken any steps towards better relations with Iran, they have poisoned bilateral relations by openly supporting the Mujahedeen."

The daily called on the Iranian foreign ministry to react to this anti-Iranian propaganda campaign.
 

Mullahs'-Backed Group Punished for Political Murders in Turkey, Reuters, July 24

ISTANBUL - A Turkish court on Monday sentenced an Islamic guerrilla to death and four more militants to life imprisonment for their role in political killings in early 1990s, state-run Anatolian news agency said.

Those convicted were found guilty of participating in the killings of Turkish journalist Cetin Emec and secularist writer Turan Dursun in 1990 and for the 1992 murder of Iranian dissident Ali Akbar Gorbani along with a number of bomb attacks and bank robberies.

Gorbani was a member of Mujahideen-Khalq dissident group based in Iran.

Anatolian said the convicts were members of the outlawed Islamic Action Organization -- a shadowy group which Turkey has repeatedly accused Iran of backing.

Another Turkish court last month sentenced 33 Islamic militants to death for their role in an Islamic riot in 1993 in which 37 people were killed in a hotel fire during a festival in central Turkey.
 

More Than 300,000 Children Work Illegally: Union Leader, Agence France Presse, July 23

TEHRAN - More than 300,000 Iranian adolescents and children labor illegally in the country's workshops and factories, the head of a state-organized union organization said Saturday.

Ali-Reza Mahjub warned that child laborers were poorly paid and lacked social protection and said their number could double within a year.

Iran is a member of the International Labor Organization and has signed a number of major conventions on working conditions.
 

Destruction of Iran's Environment Alarming, Agence France Presse, July 17

TEHRAN - An Iranian official Sunday warned against the excessive, rapid and alarming destruction of the Iranian environment over the last 30 years, according to press reports.

"Something must be done because the rate (of destruction) is alarming, said Youssef Hojat, Deputy Head of the Department of Environment.

According to Hojat, "30 percent of Iran's forests and prairies have become wasteland over the past thirty years."

Iran's cities and countryside are the scene of some of the world's most rapid environmental destruction, as natural resources are destroyed in favor of heavily polluting industry.

Officially, pollution-causing industry is banned within 72 miles of major cities, but backhanders and connections render the rule symbolic.

Tehran remains one of the world's most polluted cities, with about two million cars circulating through it, including 700,000 cars that were built more than 20 years ago.

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