Iranian exiles say 7 members held by Baghdad

An Iranian dissident group whose camp in Iraq was the scene of a disputed outbreak of violence last week claimed today that Iraqi authorities plan to hand over seven allegedly detained members to Iran. Baghdad denies having any such plans.
The latest dispute comes as Iraqi officials prepare to relocate the remaining residents of Camp Ashraf, about 95 kilometers northeast of the Iraqi capital. The compound has long been a source of irritation to the Iraqi authorities, who want it closed and its current and former residents moved out of the country altogether.
A total of 52 members of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq were killed in a shooting at the Saddam Hussein-era compound on September 1. The group, which opposes Iran's clerical regime and was labeled a terrorist organization by the US until last year, blamed Iraqi security forces for the killings. Iraqi officials have said an internal dispute erupted inside the camp.

A team from the United Nations mission to Iraq visited the camp after the killings and confirmed the number of fatalities, but it has not released further findings into what happened or ascribed blame for the deaths.
About 100 MEK members had been living at the camp before the killings. The UN refugee agency says 42 remain.
A spokesman for the MEK's parent organization, the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran, alleged that the seven people he said were "taken hostage" at the time of the killings are being held by Iraqi forces near Baghdad airport and will be transferred to Iran in the coming days.

MEK members fear they will be persecuted if returned to the Islamic Republic.

"The government of Iraq has made no announcement about arresting these individuals and wants to return them to Iran surreptitiously at the first convenient opportunity without making any noise and raising attention," Shahin Gobadi charged.
He said he knew this via sources within Iran's "clerical regime," but he did not identify them, expressing concerns about security. He said he did not know why those seven were abducted while dozens were killed and others survived.
Ali al-Moussawi, the spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said he had no information about any missing residents. He denied there are any plans by Iraq to forcibly send former Camp Ashraf residents to Iran, and he pressed for help in resettling them safely abroad.

"These new allegations are baseless. The Iraqi government calls on all countries to accept them," he said.