NCRI – February 9, 2013 – At 05:45 this morning, local time, camp Liberty was attacked with missiles and mortars. Until now 6 residents including a woman were martyred and more than 50 people injured. The injured are at critical condition and the number of martyrs may rise. One of the 6 residents died two hours after the attack due to delay in transfer to hospital. The names of martyrs are: Pouran Najafi, Yahya Nazari, Akbar Azizi, Mostafa Khosravi, Mehdi Abed and Hadi Shafiei.
Aid and ambulances for transfer of injured were not available in the early hours of the attack. The generator of Iraqi Clinique was also hit and is not functioning and the electricity has been cut off. Iraq’s prime ministry has ordered the Iraqi forces to prevent transfer of injured to hospitals with few vehicles which the residents had brought to Liberty from Ashraf.
During the past year, despite residents’ insistence and frequent approach to the US and UN officials, the government of Iraq cruelly prevented transfer of residents’ medical equipment from Ashraf to Liberty.
Liberty is located at the heart of a military zone and is not accessible to anyone without coordination with the Iraqi government. Eight convoys of the residents which were transferred from Ashraf to Liberty in 2012 were stopped at 7 points and carefully searched with equipment and trained police dogs.
It has been a year since 3100 Ashraf residents are transferred and imprisoned in the ½ kilometer square Liberty camp which is 80 times smaller than Ashraf. There is no proper shelter in this camp and the residents are living in containers which are placed next to each other like match cans. Last March when Liberty was hit for the first time with a mortar, the National Council of Resistance of Iran warned that this place has no security. Subsequently, the agents of Iraqi prime ministry even took the protecting cement walls of the containers and residents’ objection to Kobler and UNAMI did not go anywhere.
Yesterday and the day before, Liberty residents and their lawyers and representatives warned about another massacre by the Iranian regime and Iraqi forces. They called on the UN Secretary General and US officials again to return them to Ashraf in which they built concrete buildings and bunkers and shelters.
Mrs. Rajavi called on President Obama, the UN Secretary General, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the UN High commissioner for Human Rights for the return of 3100 defenseless refugees living in camp Liberty to camp Ashraf in order to protect their lives. The US government and the UN are directly responsible for the safety and security of these refugees.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
9 February 2013
