Camp housing Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, based in Iraq since 1980s, closes after last 280 residents are flown to Albania

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A camp housing members of an Iranian opposition group in Iraq has officially been closed after the last 280 residents were flown to Albania, the group said.

The Mujahedeen-e-Khalq has been based in Iraq since the 1980s, when they received arms and support from Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war. US-led forces disarmed the group after the 2003 invasion and settled them at a base north of Baghdad.

Q&A: what is the MEK and why did the US call it a terrorist organisation? Read more

The group was listed as a terrorist organisation by the US State Department for years over its killing of Americans. The MEK was also accused of taking part in the brutal suppression of a 1991 Shia uprising against Saddam, allegations denied by the group.

The MEK says it renounced violence in 2001. The US military in Iraq signed an agreement with the group in 2004, promising that members would be treated as “protected persons” under the Fourth Geneva Convention. The State Department removed the group from its list of terrorist organisations in 2012.

Iraqi forces raided Camp Ashraf, the group’s longtime base north of Baghdad, in 2009, shortly after US-led forces handed over responsibility for the camp to the Iraqi government. The group was later relocated to a former military base in the capital.

Armed groups have repeatedly attacked the group since Saddam’s ousting, killing scores of its members, according to the MEK.

While the casualty figures could often not be independently verified, the UN repeatedly expressed concern about the safety and security of residents of the group’s camps.

The group said last year that more than 20 members were killed in a missile attack on their camp, but the figure could not be independently verified and the MEK has made exaggerated claims to the media in the past.