beetroot recipes: Morning Brief: Iran Involved in Raid on Camp Ashraf

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Iran Involved in Raid on Camp Ashraf

FP Exclusive: U.S. intelligence officials believe Iranian commandos participated in a deadly raid on an Iraqi compound housing the Iranian dissident group Mujahadeen-e Khalq and then spirited seven members of the group back to Iran, FP's Yochi Dreazen reports.

The raid on Camp Ashraf killed at least 50 members of the MEK, which laid down their weapons at the request of U.S. authorities and in exchange for promises of protection from the U.S. military. Leaders of the MEK claim that Iraqi security forces were behind the attack.

Baghdad has denied that claim, and U.S. officials have concluded that a small number of Iranian paramilitaries from its feared Islamic Revolution Guards Corps helped plan and direct the assault on the camp. Three officials, speaking to FP, said gunmen from two of Tehran's Iraqi-based proxies, Kitab Hezbollah and Asaib Ahl al-Haq, then carried out the actual attack. Additionally, seven members of the MEK were abducted from Ashraf and taken to Iran, where they haven't been heard from since. The Iranian involvement in the Ashraf massacre hasn't been reported before.

"Iraqi soldiers didn't get in the way of what was happening at Ashraf, but they didn't do the shooting," a U.S. official briefed on the intelligence community's assessment of the attack said in an interview.

Ukraine: The Ukrainian prime minister praised a deal with Russia that provides financial aid and discounted natural gas as the only way for the country to avoid economic collapse, even as thousands of protesters remain on the streets of Kiev in opposition to the government's embrace of Moscow. "Today I can firmly announce that the crisis moment has passed," the prime minister, Mykola Azarov, said. "We have a new and firm perspective of confidence. We will maintain social and financial stability. Now, nothing threatens the financial and economic stability of Ukraine."

Africa

South Sudan's former vice president denied the government's allegations that he attempted to stage a coup over the weekend.
U.N. diplomats say violence in South Sudan has left some 400 to 500 people dead.
French forces deployed in the capital of the Central African Republic Tuesday to flush out elements of the anti-Balaka militia.

Europe

European finance ministers made progress toward creating a system for bank bailouts, a key component of the eurozone's nascent banking union.
The Italian government promised an investigation after video emerged showing naked migrants on the island of Lampedusa being hosed down and disinfected in cold weather.
The punk band Pussy Riot and a group of jailed Greenpeace activists are set to be freed under the terms of Russia's amnesty law, which passed Tuesday.

Middle East

Syria's chemical weapons will be transported on Russian trucks and then shipped to a U.S. Navy vessel, where they will be destroyed.
Syrian warplanes kept up their bombardment of Aleppo for a fourth straight day, dropping barrel bombs over the city.
Attacks across Iraq, including a suicide bombing, left at least 11 people dead.

Asia

The Indian parliament passed a measure setting up an independent anticorruption agency, a central demand of anti-graft campaigners in the country.
The arrest of an Indian diplomat in New York on charges of visa fraud has sparked a diplomatic row between the United States and India.
Six U.S. soldiers were killed in a helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan.

Americas

A group of U.S. Senators castigated the CIA for failing to release a 3,000 page report on Bush-era interrogation and detainment practices.
An Argentine court overturned a previous ruling and convicted 10 people in connection with the kidnapping and forced prostitution of Marita Veron.
A Canadian court ruled that an Ecuadorean indigenous group can seek enforcement of a multibillion dollar ruling against Chevron.

-By Elias Groll

Mario Tama/Getty Images

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