Camp Ashraf April 8 massacre, three years later

Today marks the third anniversary of the April 8, 2011 massacre at Camp Ashraf, carried out by the Iraqi government at the behest of the Iranian regime. On the dawn of April 8, a contingent of Iraqi security forces entered Camp Ashraf at the command of Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, and attacked the defenseless residents of the camp. The raid lasted six hours, in which 36 residents – including eight women – were brutally murdered through extensive use of firearms and by being crushed under armored vehicles, and more than 350 others were injured.

The April 8 attack on Ashraf was the Iranian regime’s reaction to contain the force of freedom within Iran, especially since its flame had been reignited weeks prior to the attack. Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, president elect of the Iranian resistance, said in her July 18, 2011 speech at a great gathering of the Iranian diaspora in Paris, “The Iranian regime’s survival depends on the destruction of its anti-thesis. This is a truth that has been tested many times during the past thirty years. The Iranian regime is trembling from the storm of uprisings in the region, and that is why the convoys of armored vehicles were sent to wipe out Ashraf.”

Khamenei, the supreme leader of the mullahs’ regime, had appointed Maliki with the task of massacring and destroying the PMOI members in Ashraf with his infantry and mechanized forces.

This attack took place while U.S. forces, which were directly responsible for the safety and security of the residents, had been present in the camp during the days that led to the attack and deliberately left Ashraf on the eve of April 8, whereas they were totally aware of the imminent threat of an attack and had been warned by the residents.

While paying homage to the memory of the victims of the April 8 attack, it is worth remembering that today, the residents of Camp Ashraf, who have been forcibly relocated to Camp Liberty, near Baghdad, are still being persecuted, tortured and attacked by the same Iraqi forces that perpetrated the April 8 attack. The United Nations and United States government are legally and morally responsible for their safety and wellbeing, but they have yet to deliver on the many promises they’ve made to the residents.