Associated Press

April 20, 2003 Sunday

HEADLINE: U.S. Takes on Mujahedeen Militia in Iraq

BYLINE: BORZOU DARAGAHI; Associated Press Writer

DATELINE: NEAR CAMP ASHRAF , Iraq

BODY:
Charred military trucks, exploded tanks and crushed pieces of artillery line the highway where the American bombs struck. A twisted chassis juts from the asphalt.

A huge crater in the roadway illustrates the U.S. military's determination to stop the vehicles belonging to the Mujahedeen Khalq - the People's Mujahedeen - an Iraq-based militia fighting against the Islamic Republic of Iran next door.

Though they share the United States ' opposition to Iran 's leadership, the U.S. State Department and the European Union classify the Mujahedeen as a terrorist group.

"We had nothing to do with the American war against Saddam Hussein," says Ramezan Payegar, a 42-year-old fighter for the Iranian opposition group. "Our whole purpose for staying here is for war against the clerical regime" of Iran .

Several days of bombing killed at least seven fighters, destroyed 15 to 20 tanks, numerous vehicles, equipment and a barracks in the center of Camp Ashraf , Mujahedeen officials said.

"There's work that's ongoing right now to try to secure some sort of agreement that would be a cease-fire and capitulation" of the Mujahedeen, Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks of the U.S. Central Command said Thursday.

The fall of the Baghdad government, which hosted the Mujahedeen for 17 years, also has raised questions about the future of the heavily armed, well-organized Iranian opposition militia, now that the U.S.-led coalition has taken control of Iraq .

The war forced the group to evacuate its camps in southern Iraq and near Baghdad . Those sites have reportedly been looted in the chaos following the collapse of a central Iraqi authority.

Group leaders also allege Iranian military and intelligence operatives have made repeated incursions into Iraqi territory since the start of the war to attack its outposts, killing up to 28 members.

"This is not the best time in the world for us," said Massoud Farschi, a Mujahedeen guerrilla.

After participating in the 1979 ouster of the former shah of Iran , Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the group had a falling out with the clerical government and launched a campaign of assassinations and bombings.

Kurdish officials in northern Iraq have accused the Mujahedeen of being an arm of the Baath Party's military and intelligence apparatus, which took part in the 1991 suppression of the Kurdish uprising that followed the U.S.-led Gulf War.

Hussein Madani, a Mujahedeen spokesman, denied the allegations, calling them propaganda produced by the Iranian Intelligence Ministry.

Throughout the Mujahedeen's 17-year stay in Iraq , Madani said, the group has had contacts only with Iraq 's Foreign Ministry.

He said its bases were considered "foreign soil" where Iraqi officials were not permitted to enter, and the group had never endorsed any of the Iraqi government's policies,

Through a Paris-based organization, which acts as its political wing in the west, the group has tried to bolster its image, convincing 150 U.S. congressman recently to sign a petition calling on Washington to remove the group from the list of terrorist organizations.

But years of lobbying U.S. officials, placing advertisements in English-language publications and holding demonstrations in American cities did not save the Iranian opposition group from American air attack.

The group's military activities have calmed in recent years. Madani said his militia has not conducted any recent offensive operations against the Islamic Republic.

Iran has officially announced an amnesty for the rank-and-file members of the group, which numbers up to 15,000. "We announce explicitly that the Iranian government is ready to accept these individuals into the country and rid them from all the afflictions they are having now," government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh told reporters in Tehran last week.

But Madani said he hoped his group could remain a force in post-Saddam Iraq and carry on its fight against Tehran . They would not retaliate against America , and would even be open to "military cooperation" with the United States against Tehran , he said.

"If there is a wise policy that would consider the realities of this part of the world, they would recognize the Mujahedeen as a democratic force that belongs in the region," Madani said. "We were not born in Iraq . And we are not going to end in Iraq . Our roots lie deep in Iranian society and history."