Iran warns Iraq to stop supporting Mojahedin rebels

[Brad Hernlem]

Reposted from soc.culture.iranian (thanks to Amir Taghavi):

ATHENS, Greece (UPI) -- A day after its warplanes blasted Iraqi
positions of the Mojahedin Khalq Organization, Iran warned Iraq Monday
of dire consequences if the Iraqi-based Iranian rebels attack Iranian
territory, according to Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency,
(IRNA).
Baghdad Radio, monitored in Cairo, said Iraq plans reconnaissance
flights along its 750-mile border with Iran to counter any further
Iranian air attacks.
Cairo-based diplomats said that staging such flights by Iraq along
its border with Iran will mark the first time Baghdad has sent planes on
reconnaissance missions over the joint border since the Iraqi army was
defeated Gulf War last year.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned senior diplomats from several
Western countries and delivered a strongly-worded protest to them about
attacks by Mojahedin supporters on Iranian embassies, IRNA said.
Iranian warplanes entered Iraqi territory Sunday to bomb and strafe a
Mojahedin rebel base 40 miles north of Baghdad in retaliation for an
alleged Mojahedin attack on two Iranian border villages.
An IRNA dispatch monitored in Athens quoted a Foreign Ministry
spokesman as saying Iran ``called on Baghdad to drop support for the
terrorist group and halt terrorist acts against the Islamic Republic
from inside Iraq.''
Iran said its jet fighters ``heavily pounded'' positions of the
Mojahedin Khalq near Khalis in retaliation for a rebel attack on two
tribal villages near the border town of Qasr Shirin.
Iran did not name the villages or disclose the number killed. A
Mojahedin spokesman dismissed the Iranian claim as ``lies.''
He said 12 Iranian F-4 Phantoms, flying in pairs, attacked the
group's Ashraf base near Khalis, killing one guerrilla and damaging
property, and one plane was shot down. An Iraqi military spokesman said
the F-4 pilot and another crew member were captured.
In a statement faxed to Athens Monday, the Iranian rebel group said
the captured pilot, identified as Col. Qassem Amini, was a top officer
in the Iranian Air Force. The second man captured, Capt. Arsalan
Sharifi, was the plane's navigator.
IRNA said the Iranian Foreign Ministry Monday summoned senior
diplomats of a number of Western countries and delivered a strongly-
worded protest to them about attacks by supporters of the Mojhedin on
Iranian embassies.
The protest followed attacks by Mojahedin supporters on Iranian
embassies in Germany, Britain, France, Sweden, Norway, Canada, the
Netherlands and the Iranian representative's office at the United
Nations in New York.
Iran said police in those countries did not do enough to protect the
missions when ``assailants rampaged through'' them, injuring a number of
Iranian diplomats and embassy staff and damaging property.
IRNA quoted an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying the
diplomats ``were reminded of their governments' responsibility in
abiding by the Vienna Convention which guarantees security of embassies
and representative offices.''
Since June 1981, when they were forced underground in Iran, the
Mojahedin Khalq has operated against Tehran's ruling clerics, mainly
from outside the country.
In 1986, Mojahedin Khalq leader Massoud Rajavi moved from Paris to
Iraq and set up the group's military wing, naming it the National
Liberation Army of Iraq.
The rebels, who have several military bases in Iraq, made a number of
cross-border attacks during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, but claimed no
further operations since the war ended in August 1988.
Tehran radio said in a commentary that the group ``has received
financial, political and military support from the Iraqi government for
the past six years,'' and Iran considered this support ``to be
unfriendly and irresponsible.''
It warned that Baghdad ``will bear responsibility'' for the
consequences of continued support because the Iranian government was
duty-bound ``to defend the territorial integrity of the Islamic Republic
and the lives and property of its citizens.''
Sunday, IRNA quoted an Iranian military official as saying further
attacks inside Iraq were possible if the Mojahedin continued their rebel
activities against Iran.
A Mojahedin spokesman said Mojahedi forces were training for ``a last
and final assault'' against the ruling clerics in Iran.