Iraq: Iranian-Swede killed in Iraqi army attack

Iraq: Iranian-Swede killed in Iraqi army attack

Al-Jazeera has a video report up about the attack.

According to Swedish news, one of the dead is Hanif Emami, who was born in Iraq but came to Sweden as a refugee when he was a child. He returned to Iraq ten years ago and settled in Camp Ashraf. His stepmother, who lives in Western Sweden, received news of his death. She says it's a disaster, and that two of her children, whom she loves, are in the camp. The situation is extremely bad and very worrying. She's been told her step-daughter, who's also in the camp, has been injured.

Iranians in Sweden are protesting the attack in front of the US embassy.



Seven members of an exiled Iranian opposition group have been killed in clashes with Iraqi police at a refugee camp over the past two days, authorities said Wednesday.


Security forces attempted to establish security control at Camp Ashraf in Iraq's Diyala province Tuesday and continued Wednesday to square off with members of the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran.


The camp, which has housed Iranians since the mid-1980s, has been a refuge of the People's Mujahedeen.


Regarded as a terrorist group by the United States and Iran, the group allied with Saddam Hussein in Iraq during the 1980s with the goal of toppling the Iranian regime.


Since Hussein's overthrow in 2003, Iraq has established good relations with the Iranian government.


Iran wants to see the camp shut down, and the Iraqi government has said it would close the facility after it got control of the camp from the United States this year.


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Around one hundred Swedish-Iranians have been demonstrating outside the American embassy in Stockholm following the storming of Baghdad's Camp Ashraf by Iraqi forces.


At least two policemen have died and around 420 people were wounded after Iraqi soldiers stormed the camp on Tuesday. Iran's People's Mujahedeen set up Camp Ashraf as a base to operate against the Iranian government.


The Swedish Foreign Ministry has confirmed that there are several Swedes in the camp.


One of the Stockholm demonstrators, Forough Shahriary, told Swedish Radio News that Sweden, which holds the European Union Presidency, should act, including putting pressure on the United States, as well as the Iraqi and Iranian authorities.


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Sources: CNN, SR (English)

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