LONDON, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- Demonstrators rallied outside the Iranian Embassy in London Sunday to protest a reported attack on an Iranian exile base in Iraq.
They accused Iraqi special forces, allied with Iranian agents, of invading Camp Ashraf, in northeast Iraq near the Iranian border, and wounding 175 refugees with stones, pieces of metal and other sharp objects, the BBC reported.
Camp Ashraf, with a population of 3,500, is the base of the People's Mujahedin of Iran, which was harbored by Saddam Hussein and has been designated a terrorist group by the U.S. government. But the residents have "protected persons" status under the Geneva Convention.
The British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom accuses Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of ordering the attack and urged American troops and the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq to intervene.
The committee's chairman, Lord Corbett of Castle Vale, warned of an "imminent humanitarian tragedy."
The National Council of Resistance of Iran charged the attack was "in pursuance of a dictated policy by the Iranian regime" and said,
"It is the duty of the U.S. forces and the United Nations to assume the protection of Ashraf residents immediately."
