| "Mortar attacks in the neighborhood of the Iranian President’s residence, the Parliament and other official buildings, which was claimed by the People's Mojahedin, left one dead and four wounded Saturday night in Tehran," Associated Press reported. |
A Few Examples
Dead and wounded litter the field during the recent past. The PMOI, which has no problems with contradicting itself, refutes the charge of using terrorism, yet regularly claims responsibility for its actions on the ground. It involves an organization in permanent panic of being forgotten, a threat that grows day by day, and must, therefore, motivate its militants who have never witnessed the victory announced thousands of times in the past.
On the ground, it is innocent civilians who pay the price of this bloody madness as we can see from some dispatches from the Western press:
“A new explosion took place in the night of Tuesday-Wednesday in Northern Teheran. The blast caused material damage to a public building, Iranian Radio announced. The explosion took place in the administrative offices of the Pasdaran, in the capital’s Northern residential neighborhood. The radio gave no other details”.
“A violent explosion took place Tuesday afternoon in the offices of the Revolutionary Court in Northern Teheran. Two people lost their lives and two others were wounded, according to State television. The count seems to be five dead and several dozen wounded, announced several newspapers on Wednesday. The blast caused major damage to the entry hail of the Court. According to pictures shown on television, the room is completely destroyed. The People’s Mojahedin have claimed responsibility for this action”. 1
“The Number 2 of the Iranian Armed Forces, General Ali Sayyad Shirazi, was assassinated Saturday morning, announced the official press agency, IRNA. According to IRNA, General Shirazi, one of the highest ranking Army commanders in the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988, was killed by ‘terrorists’, a term usually applied to describe the opposition People’s Mojahedin movement, based in Iraq. The attack took place at the moment when the victim was going to work, stated the Iranian agency, which provided no additional details on the circumstances of this crime.
The Associated Press Bureau in Cairo received a telephone call from a People’s Mojahedin spokesperson in Paris claiming responsibility for this action. The spokesman, Shahin Gobadi, read a statement emphasizing that General Shirazi was a ‘war criminal’. It was claimed that he was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Iranian opposition members. The spokesman did not for now add any details on the way in which the Iranian official was killed, indicating only that he was escorted by heavily armed body guards”. 2
“Mortar attacks, claimed by the People’s Mojahedin, left one dead and four wounded Saturday night in Teheran. This took place in the neighborhood of the Iranian President’s residence, the Parliament and other official buildings.
According to Iranian television, a man 29 years of age, an employee in a publishing company situated across from the offices of the Judicial Services, was killed, while four others suffered wounds. The windows of the publishing house were broken and the walls damaged. Two cars were destroyed.
The Office for the Coordination of Friday Prayers is the only official building to have been damaged: windows blown out, mortar shrapnel in its walls. The remains of the mortar shells were visible at the site, at the corner of Vali-Asr and Imam-Khomeini avenues for the television, the explosions are the work of ‘hypocrites’, or, in other words, the People’s Mojahedin, who oppose the Teheran regime and have camps in Iraq not far from the Iranian border. In a press release faxed to the Associated Press in Cairo, the Mojahedin claimed responsibility for these attacks which, they stated, targeted the residence and office of the Guide of the Revolution, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei”. 3
‘Several mortar shells exploded inside a residential complex in Northern Teheran, close to a military installation on Monday. According to witnesses, there were two wounded. More than 10 mortar shells hit the Noor complex which has 360 apartments, according to them. You could see blood on the sidewalk. Ambulances and fire engines were sent to the scene. Teheran Radio also reported these explosions, pointing out that they were from mortar fire.
The Government has made no comment. The opposition party, the People’s Mojahedin (Khalq) claimed responsibility, claiming that the shelling hit the barracks of the Guardians of the Revolution (Pasdaran), the elite military force which operated separately from the Iranian Army.
In a release received by the Associated Press in Dubai (United Arab Emirates), the People’s Mojahedin stated that the target was the Pasdaran’s Commander, General Rahim Safavi. According to witnesses, however, the shells fell about 100 meters short. Journalists saw eight cars destroyed in the complex. One person lost a leg, and a woman who was in a car, was slightly wounded, declared a resident of the Noor complex under cover of anonymity.
1 – "Nouvelle explosion à Téhéran: dégâts materials, selon la radio" – AFP, March 1998.
2 – "Un haut responsible de l'armée iranienne assassiné" Associated Press, 10 April 1999
3 – "Attentas au mortier à Téhéran, près du Parliament : un mort et quarte blessé", Associate Press , 5 February 2000