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TEHRAN, Jun 28 - Iran is marking the 38th anniversary of a deadly attack by the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) amid a push by the US and Saudi Arabia to prop up the dying terrorist group as a pressure tool.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - On June 28, 1981, a powerful bomb went off at the headquarters of an Iranian political party, the Islamic Republican Party (IRP), where the party’s leaders were holding a meeting. The bombing killed scores of Iranian officials, including then head of Supreme Judicial Council Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti.
The MKO, the group known to have perpetrated the attack, is notorious for its numerous terrorist attacks against Iranian civilians and government officials.
Out of the nearly 17,000 Iranians killed in terrorist attacks since the victory of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, about 12,000 have fallen victim to MKO's acts of terror.
Despite the group's gruesome terror campaign early after the Iranian revolution, the MKO was effectively neutralized in the country and forced to seek refuge in Iraq under the protection of then-Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein.
The deadly attack in 1981 came amid a bloody war being waged on Iran by Saddam who was being assisted by MKO terrorists through military, espionage and sabotage operations against the Islamic Republic.
The MKO's military strength, provided by foreign powers, was however ultimately crushed in a 1988 Iranian counter-operation dubbed "Operation Mersad" against a massive incursion into the country.
Following the overthrow of Saddam in 2003, Iraqi leaders had long urged MKO remnants to leave the Arab country, but a complete eviction of the terrorists had been hampered by the US and European support for the group.
Remaining members were, nonetheless, finally expelled from Iraq in 2016.
The US and some of its allies have, however, in recent years thrown a great amount of support seeking to reinvigorate the group, openly cooperating with the MKO in anti-Iran operations.
The group throws lavish conferences every year in Paris, with certain American, Western, and Saudi officials as its guests of honor.
Top figures known to have taken part in the group's meetings include US National Security Advisor John Bolton, US President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper, and former Saudi Arabian spy chief, Prince Turki al-Faisal.
Despite the US and its allies' attempts to empower the MKO, the cult-like group has remained largely banished in Iran and in the international community, with membership largely limited to its now aging pool of members who had originally joined the group in the 1970's and the 1980's.
According to the British daily The Guardian, the MKO is even known to rely on busing refugees and young eastern Europeans to fill up its events. The group has also been reported by numerous sources to be relying on fake social media profiles in pushing its Washington-backed anti-Iran agenda.
Last week, an unverified audio tape leaked from the organization suggested the group may have even colluded with foreign powers to carry out mysterious explosions targeting two oil tankers in the Persian Gulf earlier this month.
Source: Presstv
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