Iran Condemns Iraq for MKO AttacksIranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi on Wednesday condemned Iraq for the recent attacks on the country by the Iraq-based Iranian opposition group Mujaheddin Khalq Organization (MKO).Iran holds the Iraqi government responsible for the terrorist acts committed by the MKO in Iran, Asefi was quoted by the Islamic Republic News Agency as saying. He accused Baghdad of violating the principle of good- neighborliness by backing the MKO in its terrorist moves and sabotage activities in Iranian soil. The Iraqi government must bear all the consequences of the MKO terrorist acts in Iran, the spokesman warned. Iran and Iraq, which fought a bloody war in the 1980s, have recently accused each other of supporting terrorist acts in the other country's capital. Both Tehran and Baghdad host opposition groups of the other. The Iraq-based MKO has launched series of mortar attacks on Iranian government and military targets during the past six months. Following such MKO attacks, explosions and sabotage operations would usually also be reported in Iraq. The MKO on Saturday night fired 12 mortar shells at a residential area near the Iranian State Mint House. The group claimed that the attack targeted the Iranian Intelligence Ministry about one kilometer south of the hit area. The MKO, a major political and military group which had fought against the Iranian shah regime before the 1979 Islamic revolution, was outlawed in 1981 and fled to Iraq following sharp conflicts with the Iranian cleric regime. Labeled by Iran as a "terrorist group," the MKO has launched series of cross-border attacks inside Iran in recent years, including bombings and assassinations of senior Iranian officials. |
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