Hundreds in Diala protest against MKO

DIALA / Iraqi News: Hundreds of Diala residents staged on Friday a massive protest in front of Ashraf Camp demanding to deport members of the Mujahedeen Khalq Organization (MKO) out of the province, Khales mayor said. “The protestors called for deporting the members of the organization for their involvement in supporting armed groups and destabilizing the security condition in Diala,” Uday al-Khadran told IraqiNews.com news agency. The members of the organization live in a fenced-off camp in Diala, north of Baghdad. The MKO, which began as part of the Iranian resistance to Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi’s rule in the mid-1960s, was driven into exile after Iran’s 1979 revolution and re-formed in Iraq, where it was nurtured by Saddam Hussein. After the American invasion, it was disarmed and its members recognized as refugees by the United Nations./p>