Back to Brief on Iran
The mullahs' official news agency, IRNA, reported this morning that the mullahs' UN ambassador had written a letter to the Security Council saying that in "the operation which was carried out from 04:15 a.m. until 07:30 am, Camp Ashraf, north of Baghdad, Camp Anzali in Jalawla, Camp Faezeh in Kut, Camp Habib in Basra, Camp Homayoun in Al-Amarah and Camp Bonyad Alavi in Mansourieh, were attacked."
In a transparent attempt to justify this crime and evade its international repercussions, he claimed that "these limited and appropriate operations were aimed at halting the attacks against Iran launched by the [Mojahedin] with Baghdad's support from inside Iraqi soil and should not be interpreted as a measure against Iraq's territorial integrity."
These preposterous claims
are made while most of the missiles hit residential areas and all news
outlets reported that a large number of Iraqi civilians were
killed, wounded or made
homeless.
This afternoon, in a letter
to the UN Secretary General and the Security Council, National Council
of Resistance President Massoud Rajavi emphasized that the
missile attack was an attempt
to export crisis ahead of the mullahs' presidential elections. Mr. Rajavi
said now that the mullahs have so impudently accepted
responsibility for these
attacks, there is an even greater need to condemn their outlaw conduct.
The NCR President added: "Linking Mojahedin operations inside Iran to Iraq is a sheer lie, which no one takes seriously. How can one target the Intelligence Ministry, the command headquarters of the mullahs' armed forces and the Revolutionary Guards as well as special anti-riot forces, etc., in the heart of Tehran from the Iraqi border, 700 km away."
"Blaming the Resistance's
operations inside Iran on the United States, Israel and Iraq, among others,
is nothing new and only reminiscent of the propaganda by
the Shah's regime in the
final stage of its rule, when popular uprisings were blamed on 'those outside
the borders,'" he said.
Iraq Says it Shoots Down Iranian Reconnaissance Aircraft, Reuters, April 19
BAGHDAD - Iraq said Thursday that its air defenses had shot down an unmanned Iranian reconnaissance aircraft, or drone, over its territory.
"At 16:21 p.m. (8:20 a.m. EDT) Thursday an Iranian unmanned plane violated our air space coming from the Iranian space in the Mandili area, nearly 85 km to the east of Baghdad,'' an air defense spokesman was quoted by the official Iraqi News Agency (INA) as saying.
The incident came a day after Iraq said that Iran had fired 56 Scud missiles at camps belonging to the Iranian armed opposition People's Mujahideen Organization.
Fareed Suleimani, a spokesman
for the Mujahideen, told Reuters by phone that the Mujahideen had shot
down another Iranian drone which was flying over Camp
Ashraft near the city of
Khalis. Camp Ashraf was among a number of camps targeted in Wednesday's
missile attack.
Iran Threatens New Attacks on Mojahedin Rebels, Reuters, April 19
TEHRAN - Iran threatened Thursday to launch more strikes against rebels unless they ceased cross-border raids.
A Revolutionary Guards commander
said the missile attack against bases of the opposition People's Mojahedin
Organization in Iraq was a "warning" to the
heavily armed group to cease
its attacks in Iran, Iranian state television reported.
"In the event of a repeat
of sabotage and terrorist acts by the (Mojahedin), the Revolutionary Guards
are prepared to continue their strikes until their definitive destruction,"
the Guards' air force chief was quoted by television as saying.
Final Count of Missiles Fired at Mojahedin Camps, Iraqi Cities Stand at 77, Iran Zamin News Agency, April 19
On the basis of the latest
information gathered until 8:00 p.m. today, 77 surface-to- surface Scud
missiles were fired by the clerical regime at seven
Mojahedin camps and Iraqi
cities of Jalawla, Khalis, Meqdadieh, Kut, Al-Amarah and Basra.
27 missiles hit Basra, one hit Al-Amarah, seven hit Kut, 13 hit Khalis, five hit Meqdadieh and 24 hit Jalawla.
GC Brig. Gen. Kazemi, the
Guards' air force commander and Moqaddam, the Guards Missile Unit commander
directed the attack. Five other GC Brigadier
Generals Hajizadeh, Bigdeli,
Khaleqi, Babaian and Hessam accompanied them. Those in charge of the operations
were Yazdani, Haqgoo, Khosravi-Zadeh,
Hassan-Zadeh, Zaeri, Mojed-Nia,
Rezai-Moqadam, Vessali, Sadr-Abadi, Foroughzadeh and Haj-Agha Mahrokh.