Iranian President: Daesh Terrorists’ Savagery Similar to MKO’s
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran’s president denounced the savage acts of Daesh in Iraq and Syria and said Iranians witnessed the same cruelty when the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) terrorists acted like today’s “Daesh slayers” during the early years after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Speaking at a cabinet session in Tehran on Wednesday, President Hassan Rouhani pointed to the recent liberation of the Iraqi northern city of Mosul from Daesh terrorists and said, “No one has forgotten the day when the terrorists occupied Mosul and were thinking about occupying other Iraqi cities, including Erbil and even Baghdad.”
“On that day, the first country that came to the aid of the Iraqi people and sided with their government against terrorists was the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he added.
Last week, Iraq declared the complete liberation of Mosul some three years after the northern city fell to Daesh terrorists.
After eight months of difficult urban warfare, Iraqi military forces on June 29 captured the Mosul mosque at the heart of the strategic northern city, where Daesh had declared its de facto capital.
President Rouhani further pointed to the plight of the Iraqi people at the hands of Daesh terrorists and said the Iranian people are “not unfamiliar” with such savage acts.
Iran witnessed “slayers” similar to the Daesh terrorists in the early years after the revolution, the president said, referring to MKO.
MKO terrorists fled Iran in 1986 for Iraq and were given a camp by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
They fought on the side of Saddam during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-88). They were also involved in the bloody repression of Shiite Muslims in southern Iraq in 1991 and the massacre of Iraqi Kurds.
The notorious group is also responsible for killing thousands of Iranian civilians and officials after the victory of the Islamic revolution in 1979.
More than 17,000 Iranians, many of them civilians, have been killed at the hands of the MKO in different acts of terrorism including bombings in public places, and targeted killings.
