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Al-Ahram Weekly 17 - 23 June 1999 Issue No. 434 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 17 - 23 June 1999 Issue No. 434
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Living Travel Sports Time Out Chronicles People Cartoons Letters Across Iraq's shattered borders
In the early hours of Wednesday 9 June, a pick-up truck loaded with explosives was detonated alongside a minibus carrying members of the Iranian exiled opposition Mujahedin Khalq group from Baghdad to their camp in Al-Khalis on the Iraq-Iran border. Six people were killed and 23 injured. Two days later, three Scud-B surface-to-surface missiles cut across the border and landed in the Al-Khalis camp, causing no casualties among the Iranians, but injuring six Iraqi farmers who live nearby. The Mujahedin blamed both attacks on the Iranian government and vowed to avenge the killings of its members.For years, the war between the Mujahedin and the Islamic government in Tehran consisted simply of hit-and-run guerrilla assaults on the group's bases in Iraq, and on Iranian officials and targets inside Iran. Now, all that seems to have changed. These two strikes -- together with an attack on the group's headquarters in Baghdad last month -- mark a further escalation in what appears to have become an all-out war between Tehran and the Iraqi-backed dissidents.
The latest phase in the conflict dates back to 10 April, when gunmen disguised as city cleaners murdered Lt. Gen. Ali Sayed Shirazi, Iran's deputy chief-of-staff, as he was leaving home for work. The Mujahedin immediately claimed responsibility for the assassination of Shirazi, one of Iran's top military commanders and a hero of its eight-year-long war with Iraq. Iranian officials vowed that they would make the Mujahedin pay a heavy price for that murder. Since then, the group has launched several other successful attacks inside Iran.
The Mujahedin have been involved in cross-border terrorism since 1984, when the government of President Saddam Hussein, which was fighting a costly and apparently endless war with Iran, allowed them to open more than a dozen military training camps on Iraqi territory. The Mujahedin's operations inside Iran proved vital in helping the Iraqi army disrupt the Iranian lines and score a number of major victories in the war.
When the war came to an end, the Mujahedin group found it had outlived its usefulness. Saddam was now engaged in another bloody war, this time against a US-led international coalition. The organisation was increasingly constrained in its manoeuvres, as the Iraqi leader did not wish to endanger his new improved relations with Tehran. Meanwhile, the war over, the Iranians soon managed to tighten their control over the border and prevent the Mujahedin from infiltrating their country.
As a result, the Mujahedin were for a long time condemned to inactivity. It seemed that their chance to topple the Islamic regime had passed them by. But shortly after moderate President Mohammed Khatami took power in Iran in a landslide victory in the 1997 elections, the Mujahedin resumed their attacks against Iranian officials. This raised the question whether they were trying to undermine the new reformist programme and thus provoke a confrontation with Iraq.
However that may be, the recent attacks are expected to further aggravate already sour relations between the two neighbouring countries. Iraq's Foreign Minister Mohamed Said Al-Sahaf said Iran was "only trying to find excuses and a cover" for acts of aggression it might seek to carry out against Iraq, and a pretext "to interfere in Iraq's internal affairs." According to an official government statement, "Iranian leaders should not make the miscalculation of believing that their repeated aggression against Iraq will not be met with a response."
Yet it is also possible that the Iraqi government is encouraging the Mujahedin attacks against Iran with a view to using the group as a bargaining counter in future negotiations over the fate of Iraqi dissidents within Iran. Iran hosts a number of Iraqi Shi'ite opposition groups, among them the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). Iraq is especially concerned that the SCIRI -- which has some 10,000 men under arms -- should be prevented from taking part in any US-backed attempt to overthrow Saddam Hussein. If kicking out the Mujahedin is the price to be paid for this reassurance, President Hussein may be only too ready to cough up.
