May 6, 2024

US ambassador tries to allay fears about Iranian dissidents in Iraq

Agence France Press
WASHINGTON — Christopher Hill, the US ambassador to Iraq, sought Thursday to reassure lawmakers who fear for the safety of more than
3,000 Iranian dissidents in a camp in Iraq.
Hill, testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the US government would work to ensure that 36 People’s Mujahedeen
members arrested after a […]

A Hunger Strike to Remind U.S. of a Promise to Iranian Exiles

By Robert McCartney
Washington Post

On a sunny patch of Pennsylvania Avenue a half-block from the White House, middle-aged men and women recline on beach lounge chairs under four canopies festooned with colorful flags. They haven’t eaten solid food in a month. Before them stands a row of large photographs of 11 men, each draped with a […]

Hunger Strike a Daily Reminder of U.S.’s Forsaken Promise to Iranian Exiles

By Robert McCartney
The Washington Post
On a sunny patch of Pennsylvania Avenue a half-block from the White House, middle-aged men and women recline on beach lounge chairs under four canopies festooned with colorful flags. They haven’t eaten solid food in a month. Before them stands a row of large photographs of 11 men, each draped with […]

Going, Ready or Not

By Mohammed Hussein
New York Times
BAGHDAD– The withdrawal of American forces from Iraqi city centers is a remarkable moment in Iraq’s modern history. The Iraqi government publicly celebrated that event as never before, linking it to the 1920 revolution against British forces in Iraq, and describing it as “the day of victory.”
But Iraqis have their worries: […]

Editorial: Camp Ashraf

In a letter to a British parliamentarian last month, a senior State Department official insisted that the United States was “doing its utmost” to ensure that Iraq’s government would treat 3,400 Iranian exiles living at Camp Ashraf in eastern Iraq “humanely.” Two weeks later, a clash between the exiles and Iraqi police left 11 Iranians […]

Human bargaining chips in deals with Iran: Bernd Debusman

By Bernd Debusmann
REUTERS – COLUMN
WASHINGTON, Aug 20 (Reuters) – Seven summers ago, in a crowded conference room of a Washington hotel, an Iranian exile leader gave the first detailed public account of Iran’s until-then secret nuclear projects at the cities of Natanz and Arak. It greatly turned up the volume of a seemingly endless international […]

Iranian Dissidents’ Fate in Iraq Shows Limits of U.S. Sway

By Mark Mazzetti and Mark Landler
New York Times
WASHINGTON — Last September, Gen. David H. Petraeus told reporters in Baghdad that the United States had been assured by the Iraqi government that the 3,400 Iranian dissidents in a camp in eastern Iraq would continue to be protected after the Americans turned over responsibility for the camp […]

Iraqi Security Forces Attack Camp Ashraf in Iraq – July 28 & 29, 2009

Click to Watch NBC Nightly News Special Report: cbsnews07292009med
Watch CBS Evening News Report
July 29, 2009

Eight reported killed as Iraqi forces attack Iranian residents of Camp Ashraf

29 July 2009
Eight people are reported to have been killed and up to 400 injured after Iraqi forces attacked
unarmed Iranian residents of Camp Ashraf, north of Baghdad, on Tuesday. Amnesty International
has called on the Iraqi government to investigate the apparent excessive use of force by its security
forces.
Hundreds of armed security forces used bulldozers to force […]

Iraqi Police Crack Down on Opposition Camp

By Ernesto Londoño
Washington Post Foreign Service

BAGHDAD, July 24 — Iraqi police officers and soldiers on Tuesday raided a camp near Baghdad that is home to an Iranian opposition group that has supplied intelligence information to U.S. forces but that has long been an irritant to Iran.
Officers used batons, hoses, pepper spray and sound grenades during […]