Iraqi raid kills 34 in Iranian exile camp, UN report says

The April 8 raid targeted the People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, which seeks to overthrow Iran’s clerical leaders. The group won refuge at Camp Ashraf years ago during the regime of Saddam Hussein, who saw the organization as a convenient ally against Iran. But since then, the exiles have become an irritant to Iraq’s current Shi’ite-led government, which is trying to bolster ties with Iran.

The attack was the climax of days of building tensions between the Iraqi army and the Ashraf residents, who feared they were about to be attacked after nervously watching soldiers bulk up their forces outside the camp. The Iraqi general who led the raid said it was in response to Ashraf residents pelting his troops with rocks and throwing themselves in front of military cars.

Yesterday, John Kerry, US Senate Foreign Relations chairman, called it a massacre.

The UN visit was critical because the Ashraf residents and the Iraqi government have issued wildly different accounts of the raid and the reasons behind it.

In Geneva, Rupert Colville, UN human rights spokesman, said a team of UN observers saw 28 bodies still at the camp Wednesday during a visit to the compound in eastern Diyala Province. Most of the bodies appeared to have been shot, and some were women, he said. Three of the victims appeared to have been crushed, probably run over by a car, a Western diplomat in Baghdad said.

“It’s clearly a very serious incident, and we are trying to get more information,’’ Colville said. He said six bodies are elsewhere but did not clarify where.

The Ashraf residents maintained from the start that 34 people were killed and as many as 325 wounded. The Iraqi government said three people were killed.

Both Iran and the United States consider the People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran to be a terrorist threat, although the European Union removed the group from its terror list several years ago.

After Hussein fell, US troops took control of Camp Ashraf, disarmed its fighters, and confined the residents to their 30-square-mile camp. In return, the military signed the agreement with the camp’s 3,400 residents giving them protected status under the Geneva Conventions.

But it is not clear whether the residents still have those legal protections.

Iraqi allies in Washington and London and UN officers in Geneva sharply criticized last week’s raid, but Iran praised it.

Kerry called the raid “deeply disturbing’’ and “simply unacceptable.’’ He called on the Iraqi government to conduct a full and serious investigation and said the United States, UN, and European Union must help broker a cease-fire between the two sides.

“Corrective action is imperative,’’ Kerry said in a statement. “The [Iraqi] investigation must hold accountable the responsible parties and ensure that there will be no sequel to these horrific events.’’

The UN inspection of the camp came five days after the human rights agency first demanded to be allowed in.