Altogether 24 strike units of the Intelligence Ministry and the Revolutionary Guards, the special unit of the State Security Forces in Ilam using helicopters, the 176th battalion of the army's 16th armored division, and army counter-intelligence officers took part in the clashes. Three Mojahedin combatants were killed in the fighting.
The wounded Revolutionary Guards and other agents were taken to Ilam's Taleghani and Khomeini hospitals.
Tuesday evening's clashes began north of Saleh-Abad and went on until midnight, when the regime's suppressive forces retreated. Clashes were resumed around noon on Wednesday and went on until 5 pm. The regime's forces were so numerous that in many cases they fired on each other by mistake.
The mullahs' Intelligence Ministry confirmed the clashes after a 30-hour silence and hours after the Mojahedin issued statements reporting the clashes. The Intelligence Ministry, being forced into admission because of the widespread repercussions of the clashes in western Iran and the coverage of Mojahedin's statements by international news agencies, issued a statement by "the public relations office of the Intelligence Ministry" and admitted the involvement of mullahs' military, security, paramilitary Bassij and intelligence forces in the clashes. In a blatant lie to overshadow the mullahs' heavy casualties and the military blows suffered by the mullahs' regime in recent days in Ilam province, the Intelligence Ministry claimed that three Mojahedin members "were surrounded and killed by military, security, Bassij and intelligence forces acting in coordination late on Wednesday as they were trying to leave the country."
People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran
January 13, 2000
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