Iran Bombs Rebel Bases in Iraq
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BAGHDAD — Iranian warplanes crossed into Iraq and bombed two Iranian rebel bases Monday, injuring two Iraqi civilians, rebels said.
Iran’s official news agency, IRNA, said the air raid against strongholds of the People’s Moujahedeen, or People’s Warriors--who have fought since the 1980s to oust Iran’s hard-line Islamic regime--was aimed at “terrorist counterrevolutionaries” and killed or wounded a number of them.
The operation was in retaliation for recent attacks on Iran that had killed and wounded a number of people, an Iranian military official told the agency.
The Iraqi News Agency said the Iraqi air force scrambled jets to chase out the Iranian planes. And Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tarik Aziz protested the raid to the United Nations, urging Secretary-General Kofi Annan to press Tehran to stop its “aggression” against Iraq.
Rebel spokesman Ali Safavi said the attacks were simultaneous, with five Phantom fighter-bombers striking a base near the city of Al Kut, 105 miles southeast of Baghdad, and four jets hitting a base about 80 miles northeast of the capital.
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