Operation Tehran Spring - Statement No. 6
- Mojahedin call for dispatch of an international delegation to Tehran to inspect sites of mortars' impact and talk to those allegedly injured in the attack

Following the mortar attack on Command HQ of the Revolutionary Guards Corps and that of Rahim Safavi, the Guards' Commander in Chief, the clerical regime has embarked on an intense propaganda campaign and stage-managing, claiming that a residential area had been hit and a number of civilians had been injured.

The clerical regime has not even allowed reporters from government-controlled dailies to approach the scene of the incident in a bid to cover up the truth. A Tehran-based journalist said: "Because the security forces have cordoned off the region and prohibit anyone from entering the area, reports and figures are only announced by official sources and people cannot make any other observations." (Radio Liberty, March 13).

At the same time, a number of foreign journalists based in Tehran quoted a local reporter as saying that "several mortars did falll there [in the Guards Complex] as well. " (BBC World, March 13).

Voice of America quoted a journalist affiliated with the regime as saying that the target of the Mojahedin attack was the "Sarollah Garrison" home to "the Revolutionary Guards' crack forces" and that "fortunately, there were no casualties among civilians." (VOA, March 13).

The contradictory statements in the regime's different news organs and bulletins are the best testament to the mullahs' stage-managing. While the mullahs originally claimed that four people had been injured, in their next reports, they spoke of "about three injured" and ultimately of "two injured." One of the "injured" they said, was an unidentified "16-year-old girl" whose age was reduced to "14 years" and later to "8 years."

Reuters quoted a witness as saying that one of the wounded had been injured in the leg at "the Guards complex". The man, Mohammad-Mehdi Kayzari, is an officer of the Revolutionary Guards based in Sarollah Garrison, and is undergoing treatment in Baghiatollah Hospital, a hospital used exclusively by the Guards personnel

A Mojahedin spokesman said: The People's Mojahedin Organization calls for the dispatch to Tehran of an international fact-finding mission, accompanied by a Mojahedin representative, in order to visit the site where the mortars landed and talk to those the regime alleges to have been injured in the attack. In this way, the false nature of the mullahsÕ lies would be exposed.

People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran
March 14, 2000

Back Home