Mullahs' largest terrorist attack on Mojahedin failed

Associated Press, Jan. 8, Baghdad - A bomb exploded Tuesday night in a major downtown square in Baghdad near the headquarters of an Iranian opposition group, and an official of the group said several civilians were injured. The powerful explosion - a rarity in the Iraqi capital - was heard throughout the center of the city, reminding Baghdad citizens of bombing raids by the U.S.-led coalition during the 1991 Gulf war.

The explosion occurred in Al-Andalus Square in the city's center, near the Al-Haidari maternity hospital. It shattered windows throughout the surrounding area, causing further injuries from flying glass. There also are government offices in the area.

The Iranian source said none of the opposition group's members was wounded in Tuesday's blast, which came on a rainy night when streets were not crowded. Tuesday's blast left a hole five meters in diameter and three meters deep. It went off about 10:30 p.m. The Iranian source said the bomb consisted of three 320mm mortars placed on a truck full of bricks and equipped with a timing device. He said two of the mortars went off, but the third failed to explode.

He said he believed the mortars were part of a shipment of about 20 that Iran attempted to send into Iraq recently. Some were discovered en route, but others managed to get through, he said.

Liberation (Paris), Jan. 8, Baghdad - Three mortars were to hit the headquarters of the People's Mojahedin in Baghdad, a formidable fortress. The first one landed in the middle of a street, the second hit the headquarters of the Union of Iraqi writers and third probably exploded in air. Between the truck - from which three mortars, 200kgs each , were fired simultaneously - and the main offices of the Iranian opposition movement were 600 meters distance. The unprecedented attempt took place in the capital of Iraq at 10.20 p.m. All the city heard the sound of the explosion and saw two columns of smokes rising from near the Baghdad's main street, Saadoon Avenue. Iraq's security forces quickly closed the area and drove away the curious crowd....

The Mojahedin, who enjoy good reputation and status in this city since 1986 when they based themselves here, have no doubts that the Iranian regime is behind this attempt. In a press conference yesterday, the foreign relations chief of the National Council of Resistance, which is the political body of the movement said: "We did expect some kind of attack by the mullahs' regime but not such a heavy one. This shows that they are really desperate..."

In a guided tour, the party's security officer showed the device from which three shells had been fired. A 16-tons red had been mounted with three 320mm mortar launchers welded to it and equipped with a delayed timer trigger. All these had been covered up with bricks and a net."

"These mortars have been specially manufactured by the Al-Hadid Factory in Iran to be deployed in terrorist operations... Each mortar contains 110kgs of TNT and 15kgs of plastic explosives. Another [fifteen] of these mortars are enroute to various parts of the world."

It is in Iraq that the People's Mojahedin have set up their bases, with tens of thousands of combatants stationed in them...

AFP, Jan. 8, Baghdad - The Mojahedin's spokesman in Baghdad, Farid Soleimani, attributed the attack in Baghdad to "terrorists dispatched by the mullahs' regime" in Tehran. He said, "They have resorted to this operation in retaliation to the Mojahedin's role in the recent uprisings in western Iranian provinces, especially Kermanshah."

AFP, Jan. 9, Baghdad - Iraq accused Iran of bearing responsibility for the mortar attack in central Baghdad on the offices of Iran's main armed opposition movement. INA quoted the spokesman of Iraq's Ministry of Interior as saying, "All evidence indicate that Iran has been involved in this criminal operation."

Mojahedin's office in Baghdad, Jan. 8 - Referring to the mortar attack on the Mojahedin's HQ in Baghdad, Mr. Massoud Rajavi, leader of the Iranian Resistance, said: These anti-human crimes will not solve any problems of the mullahs ruling Iran. The trip of the Iranian Resistance's President-elect to the frontiers of her homeland has already tolled the bells for the downfall of this regime and the mullahs cannot evade their inevitable overthrown. The voice of the people of Kermanshah, Ilam and Khuzistan, just as the voice of the nationwide Resistance and the National Liberation Army will not be silenced by such desperate attempts.

The leader of the Iranian Resistance urged the government of Iraq to pursue and prosecute the Khomeini regime's terrorist diplomats and close their embassy which conspires terrorist operations and spies against the opposition.

DOMESTIC

Armored units and helicopters to chase Mojahedin

Mojahedin statement, Jan. 10 - Extensive clashes broke out between the people and the regime's suppressive forces in the last week of December. Dozens of Guards and other agents of suppression were killed in Kermanshah, Ilam and Khuzistan provinces. In one of the clashes in Dasht-e Khuzistan, the regime's forces had to use helicopters and armored units for five days to follow and suppress a group of Mojahedin, during which period, even the regime's suppressive forces could not make their usual traverses as the area was blocked and all transportations disrupted.

A number of Mojahedin and forces of popular Resistance were also slain in these clashes and the wave of extensive arrests continues in southern Iran. News of the resistance and heroic martyrdom of the Mojahedin has broken in western Iran and is passed along by the word of mouth.

Hundreds of Guards killed or wounded

Mojahedin statement, Jan. 12 - Clashes spread between the Mojahedin and the suppressive forces of the mullahs' illegitimate regime in the past days in the provinces of Kermanshah, Ilam and Khuzistan, the Mojahedin's Command Headquarters in Iran reported. Residents of various cities and villages have arisen in support of the Mojahedin and a large number of the regime's Guards and agents have been killed or wounded.

Hundreds of casualties were inflicted on the regime's Guards and agents in the clashes which took place over the past three weeks in different provinces. Six Mojahedin members have been slain altogether. Another 15 sympathizers and forces of popular resistance who had risen in support of the Mojahedin, were also slain at the hands of the regime's Guards and Intelligence Ministry agents. Some individuals were arrested and executed secretly and their exact numbers is not known.

The political and military mobilization of the mullahs' regime and its false propaganda campaign against the Iranian Resistance and Mojahedin have taken on unprecedented dimensions in the past three weeks. The mullahs' religious, terrorist dictatorship has launched Air Corps patrols in the interval between Khorramshahr and Hovaizeh (in southwestern Iran) to capture the Mojahedin.

Publication of the consecutive statements of the Ministry of Intelligence in the press and their repeated calls pleading to "public" for cooperation against the Mojahedin and identifying their dead, and the unprecedented rise in the number of patrols and inspection checkpoints, indicate the extent of fear and terror the mullahs feel from the beginning of the new phase of the nationwide Resistance.

Amnesty says executions doubled in Iran

Associated Press, Jan. 7 - The number of executions in Iran more than doubled last year and many of the death sentences were carried out after unfair trials, Amnesty International said today.

The London-headquartered human rights group said it recorded at least 110 executions in Iran in 1996, compared with 50 in 1995.

"The true figure may be much higher," it said, because "many executions are never reported."

Iran daily, Jan. 7, Tehran - Three men convicted of murder in separate cases were hanged in Tehran's Qasr prison.

More Suppression Against Young

Reuters, Jan. 8, Tehran - Iranian courts set up to fight Western cultural influences have ordered 130 youths held for attending parties that were "gatherings of debauchery," a court official was quoted as saying in a newspaper on Wednesday....

Agents also seized 1,243 satellite receivers imported from Dubai from two persons who were fined 80 million rials ($27,000), Kazemi said. Iran banned satellite television in 1995....

The Washington Post, Jan. 10 - An Iranian visitor to Washington said that in Iran women and young people also are faring worse than they have ever. Raids into private homes have been stepped up under the pretext of a crackdown on satellite dishes, and Iranian authorities have begun a purge of university professors. "In Iran, just to be yourself is to be political," said the visitor...

FOREIGN

Velayati's visit to Rome condemned

Reuters, Jan. 7, Rome - Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini met his Iranian counterpart Ali Akbar Velayati for talks on Tuesday and said he hoped Iran would increasingly distance itself from what he called international terrorism. Dini said Italian firms had a strong interest in Iran, an important energy supplier for Italy. The meeting was hotly criticised by Iranian anti-government groups. "To shake the hand of an official representative of the clerical-terrorist dictatorship which dominates Iran contradicts the fundamental principles of human rights," the National Council of Iranian Resistance said in a statement.

An Iranian human rights group, the Comitato Mohammad Hossein Naghdi, also condemned Italy for hosting what it termed "the representative of a state which has made terror and terrorism its raison d'etre."

Zero Defects

U.S. News & World Report, Jan. 20 - Because of a spate of defections - both rumored and real - Iran has dispatched a tough Intelligence Service teal to Europe to interview its diplomats there and to ferret out potential "trouble-makers," according to German-based intelligence sources. At least four officials have forsaken their country in the past 18 months, including a co-founder of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's secret service. Aside from the obvious embarrassment, Tehran fears the defectors will reveal details of its deadly campaign against Iranian exiles as well as its support of terrorist networks.

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