Middle East Information Resource
Political Entities - Mojahedin-e Khalq-e Iran Organization
The Mojahedin-e Khalq-e Iran Organization (MKO) is an Iranian guerrilla movement. It was established in 1965 on principle of combining Marxist and Muslim principles. It is the strongest Iranian opposition organization to emerge since the Islamic revolution in 1979.
The founders of the movement were Sa`id Mohsen and Mohammad Hanifnezhad. Hanifnezhad had operated previously within the framework of the Liberation Movement of Iran, and came to believe that only by means of armed struggle would it be possible to realize a socio-political revolution in Iran. The name "Mojahedin" means "fighters of Islam`s holy war," and summarizes the religious and also warlike orientation of the movement. The movement`s emblem, adopted in later years, portrayed a verse from the Qur`an, side by side with a map of Iran, a hammer and submachine gun. The movement drew its membership from students and youth.
In 1969, the movement formalized a political platform. It stated that victory depended upon a popular uprising and the raising of a "liberation army" to carrying out a guerrilla war. In 1969, the movement sent some of its members to Lebanon to train in guerrilla tactics in Fatah camps, and established contacts with Qadhafi in Libya. Guerrilla operations inside Iran began in 1971. Many of the movement`s activists were detained by the authorities in Iran and some were executed. In 1975 there was a split over the relative importance of Islam and Socialism. In May the Marxists established an independent movement of their own.
The movement played an important role in the success of the Islamic revolution in 1979. In the first months of the new regime, it gained particular popularity amongst the younger generation. However, Khomeini viewed its ideology as a deviation from the true Islam. He held extensive ideological debates with its leaders.
However, when this dialog did not lead to a change in their position, Khomeini decided to liquidate them. In 1980 all the branches of the movement were closed and many of its leaders detained. In June 1981 the movement opened an armed resistance against the regime. There was fighting in the streets of Tehran. In February 1982, the leader of the movement, Moussa Khiabani, who had gone underground, was located and assassinated.
The Mojahedin-e Khalq-e Iran killed dozens of leaders of the Islamic regime by laying bombs in a branch of the ruling party and the President`s offices. The new leader of the movement, Mas`ud Rajavi, escaped from Iran, together with the deposed President Abul-Hassan Bani-Sadr. They set up headquarters near Paris. However, when the French government pressed him to stop operations from French soil, he accepted an offer from President Saddam Hussein of Iraq and transferred his staff to Baghdad.
Throughout these years the movement was constantly persecuted by the Iranian regime. Several of its leaders were liquidated in exile. There were numerous raids by commando units of the Iranian revolutionary guards on its military camp inside Iraq, as well as attacks against its headquarters in Baghdad. The movement maintains an organized force of about 10,000 men in Iraq, which is financed by Saddam Hussein. However, due to the cooperation with Iraq and the terrorist methods used by it, the movement lost much of the sympathy it once enjoyed inside Iran.
In 1981 the movement established the National Council of Resistance of Iran. The Council had the participation of Bani Sadr, the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran, and the Liberation Army of Iran, as a loose coalition of opposition movements. This coalition broke up in 1984 due to the movement`s attempts to control the Council`s leadership. Later on, small left-wing groups, which agreed in principle to Rajavi`s course, joined the Council.
In 1991, they assisted the overnment of Iraq in suppressing the Shia and Kurdish uprisings in northern and southern Iraq. Since then, it has continued to provide internal security services for the Government of Iraq. In April 1992, it conducted attacks on Iranian Embassies in 13 different countries, demonstrating the group`s ability to undertake large-scale operations overseas. In recent years it has targeted key military officers and assassinated the deputy chief of the Armed Forces General Staff in April 1999. In April 2000, it attempted to assassinate the commander of the Nasr Headquarters, the interagency board responsible for coordinating policies on Iraq.
Since 1995 the movement has tried to become more moderate and to strengthen the nationalist elements in its ideology. It also tried to rid itself of the image of a guerrilla movement, but without great success. Many Iranians still have their reservations. The United States continues to consider it a terrorist organization which was responsible for killing several American military personnel in Tehran.
The pace of anti-Iranian operations increased during the "Operation Great Bahman" in February 2000, when the Fedai`yin Khalq launched a dozen attacks against Iran. In 2000 and 2001, it was involved in many mortar attacks and hit-and-run raids on Iranian military and law enforcement units and government buildings near the Iran-Iraq border. Since the end of the Iran-Iraq War its operations along the border have accomplished little, but have become routine. It insurgency in Tehran is the biggest security threat for the Iranian leadership. In February 2000 the Fedai`yin Khalq attacked the leadership complex in Tehran that houses the offices of the Supreme Leader and President.
The group has several thousand fighters located at bases scattered throughout Iraq and armed with tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and artillery. The Mojahedin-e Khalq also has an overseas support structure. Most of the fighters are organized in the National Liberation Army (NLA). In the 1980`s the Mojahedin-e Khalq leaders were forced by Iranian security forces to flee to France. In 1987 they resettled in Iraq, and the group has conducted internal security operations in support of the Government of Iraq. In the mid-1980`s the group did not mount terrorist operations in Iran at a level comparable to its activities in the 1970`s, but by the 1990`s the Mojahedin-e Khalq had claimed credit for an increasing number of operations in Iran. Beyond support from Iraq, the group uses front organizations to solicit contributions from expatriate Iranian communities.