Reuters, May 17- Gunmen fired at a vehicle of an Iranian exile group in Baghdad yesterday, killing two senior members and wounding a third, the Mojahedin Khalq organization said. The Mojahedin, which opposes the Tehran government, blamed what it called "terrorist diplomats" in the Iranian Embassy in Iraq. It urged the Iraqi government to shut down the embassy and bring the attackers to justice.

The Mujahideen said the attack occurred in the morning in the Shaab district of the capital and that the attackers fled in their car when the Mujahideen returned fire. "Mrs. Effat Haddad, a logistics commander... and Mrs. Fereshteh Esfandiari, one of the senior officials of Mujahideen public relations department, were martyred," the exile group said. It said another woman was injured. Women form a sizable portion of the Mujahideen's fighting force in Iraq.

The groups said the vehicle was on its way to Ashraf camp, one of the Mujahideen's biggest in Iraq, 120 km (70 miles) northeast of Baghdad. Another statement quoted the group's leader, Massoud Rajavi, as saying: "The criminal mullahs and their mercenaries will undoubtedly pay the price for these sacred bloods shed for the liberty of Iran."

It was the 31st (sic.) attack on the Mujahideen in Baghdad.

Five members of the group have been killed by opponents in attacks in Iraq. Iran has launched missile and air attacks on the group's military training camps in Iraq.

Associated Press, May 17- Iran's main opposition group said two of its female members were killed Wednesday in Baghdad when gunmen who it said were working for Iran's government raked their car with machine-gun fire.

A third woman was wounded in the morning attack in Baghdad's al-Shaab district, the Mujahedeen Khalq said in a statement faxed to The Associated Press.

The Mujahedeen statement said the attackers fled in another car when two male Mujahedeen members, a driver and a passenger in the front seat, opened fire with automatic rifles. Mujahedeen leader Massoud Rajavi, in a statement also faxed to The AP, said Iranian agents have carried out 33 operations against the Mujahedeen in Iraq, adding that "the time has come for the closure of the mullahs' (Iranian) embassy in and center of ter rorist operations in Baghdad." He urged the Security Council to condemn Iran and punish it for its attacks by imposing on it a tight embargo.

Protests

Statement of the Mojahedin's press office in Paris, May 19 - Thousands of Iranians demonstrated in 16 cities of 14 countries, protesting the cowardly assassination of two Mojahedin women, members of the Iranian Resistance, by the Khomeini regime.

Iranians are convinced that this terrorist operation, plotted and executed by the regime's diplomat terrorists in Baghdad, marked a new height in the mullahs' terrorist crimes and revealed their leaders' barbaric antagonism towards the women who lead t he Resistance movement....

We demand the expulsion of this suppressive, terrorist regime from the United Nations, the resolution to the worldwide demonstrations read....

The demonstrations which took place in Bonn, Brussels, Copenhagen, Geneva, Goteborg, The Hague, London, Oslo, Paris, Rome, Stockholm, Sydney and Vienna concluded as representative delegations from demonstrators delivered their resolution and petitions to the UN officials, as the well as to the Presidents and Prime Ministers of these countries. [Similar demonstrations were held in Washington, D.C., Los Angles, and Toronto.]

UPI, May 19 - An Iranian dissident group Friday accused Iran of sponsoring the assassination of two women in its organization in Iraq, sources with the dissidents said. The organization's supporters staged 16 protests Friday over the slayings in 14 Western countries and turned over petitions to several presidents and prime ministers demanding the closure of Iranian diplomatic missions, the statement said. Iran's government "has continuously used its embassies and diplomatic facilities in various countries for terrorist activities," the statement said. The organization also demanded the expulsion of Iran from the United Nations.

Reuter, May 19 - Iranian exiles on Friday delivered a protest to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Jose Ayala Lasso, over the killing of two women members of a group fighting the government in Tehran.

The protest was delivered after a brief demonstration by the exiles, which coincided with similar actions in other European cities, outside the Palais des Nations in Geneve, the U.N.'s European headquarters.

The exile Mujahideen Khalq organisation has blamed what it calls "diplomat terrorists" in the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad for the death of the women when gunmen opened fire on the vehicle in which they were traveling there on Wednesday.

Agence France Presse, May 19 - Several hundred Iranians had a peaceful gathering Friday in Paris to protest the murder of two officials of the Mojahedin Khalq, the main Iranian armed opposition group.

Waving Iranian flags, the demonstrators chanted slogans against the mullahs' regime and sang the anthem of the National Council of Resistance of Iran. They also called for the International Community's condemnation of this "criminal act" and closure of "the embassies of the Khomeini regime to prevent their taking advantage of (these facilities) for terrorist operations in the world."

Earlier, in a press conference in Paris, Saleh Rajavi, representative of the National Council of Resistance in France and brother of the Mojahedin's chief commander Massoud Rajavi, announced that Wednesday's assassination had been arranged in "the Iran ian Embassy in Baghdad, where seven of its 14 employees are from the Intelligence Ministry and special Qods Forces, in charge of terrorist operations outside the country."

According to the opposition official, "these special forces, are affiliated with the Iranian supreme security council and led by Guards Corps Col. Ahmad Vahidi."

Iran has "five bases in the Iraqi Kurdistan" which are directly supervised by Guards Corps Colonel Ali Agha Mohammadi, commander of Nasr forces which are in charge of operations on the Iraqi soil.

Boycott Mullahs!

Telegram of the NCR President to G7 leaders

Shortly after the United States President announced his decision to sign a decree imposing a complete trade embargo on the mullahs' regime, Mr. Massoud Rajavi, President of the National Council of Resistance sent a telegram to the leaders of the seven most industrialized nations. Due to the importance of the points brought up in the letter, News on Iran decided to publish some excerpts of it.

In the past 16 years, suppression, torture and brutal slaughter of the citizenry have been the primary means by which the mullahs have maintained their rule. During this period, 100,000 have been executed for political reasons and 150,000 others have b een arrested and subjected to most brutal tortures. Last month, 50,000 disenchanted south Tehran residents were machine-gunned from the air and on the ground by the Pasdaran. At least 50 were killed, many more wounded and 600 arrested. Many face execution .

Export of terrorism, fundamentalism and crisis abroad and enmity toward Middle East peace are the other side of the coin of domestic suppression and have always been the Khomeini regime's official policy on the international level.

In these years, not only hundreds of the Iranian dissidents and Resistance activists in different countries and beyond Iranian borders have been targeted, killed or wounded due to the regime's terrorist activities, but intellectuals, writers, political personalities, diplomats and foreign nationals have been victimized by the mullahs' untamed terrorism. Following Khomeini's death, his heirs have intensified these criminal actions. Since 1989, Khamenei, Rafsanjani and other chieftains of the regime have repeatedly stressed upon the fatwa to murder the British author and the need to carry out the edict.

On the other hand, the Iranian people have not succumbed to this religious, terrorist dictatorship. The National Council of Resistance, the wide-ranging coalition of the Iranian people's democratic opposition, has been striving to establish democracy a nd peace in Iran in the past 14 years by replacing the mullahs' medieval regime with a democratic government which respects free elections. Through their extensive uprisings across the country last year, the people of Iran have demonstrated that the regim e is devoid of legitimacy and is hated and dispised by the whole nation.

In the past 14 years, the Iranian Resistance has continually rejected any possibility of moderation in this theocratic regime whose constitution is based on the principle of the rule of the mullahs. The NCR has insisted on this truth that "a viper does not give birth to doves." The backward and anachronistic nature of the mullahs' regime does not allow for moderation or any respect for human rights or the people's right to freedom of thought, expression and choice.

On the international level too, as the U.S. President has said, "the evidence of the last two years proves" that the policy of "engaging" with the regime will not lead to change in its behavior. Indeed, owing to the Khomeini regime's backward and medie val nature, the policy of critical dialogue or any policy that was based on appeasing this regime has had the opposite effect. Regrettably, widespread political and economic ties between industrialized and western countries and the dictatorship ruling Ira n as well as the international community's silence and indifference toward the cleric's atrocities in and out of Iran have been a major factor in prolonging the mullahs' rule and have encouraged the clerics to continue these crimes. Petro-dollars that fin d their way from these countries into the mullahs' pockets are used totally for domestic clampdown, export of terrorism and fundamentalism and weapons purchases. Not even a dollar is spent on the country's welfare and economic development. It is not without reason that President Clinton's courageous action to impose a trade embargo on Iranian rulers has been welcomed by all of Iran's people. This embargo is the first very proper and necessary step that serves the cause of peace and coexiste nce and contributes to efforts to confront the religious, terrorist dictatorship ruling Iran. Otherwise, Iranians, who have been suffering the most flagrant violations of human rights in our time, find it demanding to ask the international community and t he world governments-- who have voted 34 times for this regime's condemnation by the various U.N. organs-- what is the practical use of their resolutions and elaborate talks? Why do their actions so profoundly differ from their views on human rights issue s?

The experience of the past 16 years has shown that so long as the Khomeini regime remains, internal suppression and export of terrorism and fundamentalism and enmity toward peace will persist. Non-binding resolutions and verbal condemnations are insuff icient. In the name of the Iranian people and their just Resistance for peace and freedom, I therefore call on you and your government to join the embargo against this illegitimate dictatorship ruling Iran. In view of the Iranian people's disdain toward the Khome ini regime, the Iranian society's explosive state and the presence of a nationwide Resistance and a democratic alternative, such an embargo will be very effective and highly welcomed by the people of Iran, expediting the establishment of democracy in that country.

FEATURE

Shedding tears for the people of Iran?

With the American President's signing of the decree for a complete trade embargo on the Khomeini regime, efforts are being made both inside and outside Iran to enumerate the adverse consequences of this embargo and prevent it from becoming internationa l.

One of the most interesting rationales against boycotting the Iranian regime appeared in some European newspapers or was heard from European diplomats. They said the embargo will affect more the people and not the government. So, it is the general publ ic who will pay the price.

The same notion had been earlier advocated by the regime's internal allies who said the populace would side with the regime against the United States pressures. The realities of the Iranian society, however, prove to be completely different. Oil revenues are mostly deposited into the mullahs' foreign bank accounts. What's left is spent on suppressing the nation, funding of extremist groups, training of terrorists , and acquiring of nuclear weapons.

Last year, Tehran clerics claimed to have exported $3.2 billion of consumer goods, what they called a considerable "boost" in non-oil exports and a "major economic advancement." What happened to the money? $2.4 billion never returned home and was direc tly deposited into the foreign bank accounts of the mullahs. What were the consequences? Further price hikes, and more poverty for the nation.

Those who shed tears for the people of Iran, today, must remember that oil revenues are spent on bullets, piercing the hearts of those disenchanted as recently as April 4 in the riots in south Tehran. They must remember that the Iranian wealth and reso urces are spent not on consumer goods, not on industrial or agricultural production, but on computers to keep tabs on the public. 500 million dollars were spent to back fundamentalist groups, billions on nuclear weapons, billions on arms, missiles and tanks, .... Who pays for all this? The people whose national wealth is plundered by a warmongering regime. At what cost? Not oil, but the blood of its children. So, even if an international boycott could presumably exert more pressure on the Iranian general public than the mullahs do, without doubt the people of Iran prefer to undergo this bit more pressure, but more quickly get rid of their turbaned dictators an d taste the sweet relief of democracy.

Meanwhile, the people of Iran can speak for themselves. Since 14 years ago, they have declared, in various forms, that they do not want this regime and the Iranian Resistance demanded an international arms and oil boycott of this regime.

No one has ever been more hostile to the Iranian nation than the Khomeinist mullahs. The Iranian people recognize only one enemy and that is Khomeini and his remnants. No wonder that in all these years, the regime's extensive constant efforts to produc e foreign enemies-- the U.S., Iraq, Israel, East and West -- have been futile.

In the past 16 years, the people of Iran have learned not to ever side up with the religious terrorist dictatorship. This reality was so outstanding that the mullahs' first prime minister, Mehdi Bazargan, had to attest to it in his last interview befo re death last January. Bazargan who never considered himself to be an opponent of the regime, said that the regime does not enjoy any more than 5% of the public's support.

Surely, when the people of South Africa demanded the boycott of their apartheid regime, any form of trade with the Pretoria government opposed the best interests of South Africans. At that time, too, some opposed the embargo out of "sympathy" for the p eople.

In any case, reports from various cities in Iran indicate that people by and large welcomed the news of embargo. A Tehran-based western journalist said that people are constantly speaking about the boycott: in public areas, in every gathering, in bus q ueues, and virtually everywhere. Their message: Had it not been for western aid to the mullahs, we had had finished our job by now!

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