SUMMARY

The Mujahideen e Khalq Organization is sometimes abbreviated MEK and sometimes MKO. The organization is also referred to as the Peoples Mujahideen of Iran (PMOI) by international media. Iranian officials prefer the call members of the group monafeqin, which is a derogatory term that means hypocrites. The military wing of MEK, called the National Liberation Army (NLA), was set up in 1986 after MEK had moved to Iraq.

The group was formed in the 1960s with the goal of overthrowing the Shah of Iran. The group was driven out of Iran after an unsuccessful attempt to rise up against the Khomeini regime in September 1981. The group sided with the Saddam Hussein regime and established themselves in Iraq in 1986.

US forces attacked the group during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. A ceasefire was eventually negotiated and the group was disarmed and relocated to Camp Ashraf, near the Iranian border. The camp was first guarded by US forces but Iraqi forces took over in 2004.

During 2011 and 2012, the residents of the camp was relocated to the former US military base Camp Liberty, near Baghdad. Both camps has been attacked by Shiite militia groups on a number of occasions.

An organization which is close to MEK is the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). NCRI is however not equivalent with MEK as it is the self-proclaimed Iranian parliament in exile. The MEK is, according to NCRI, one of five organizations, and a number of social and cultural figures, that are members of NCRI. That the leader of MEK, Massoud Rajavi, is also the leader and founder of NCRI indicates that there are close connections between the two entities. The relation between the organizations has lead the US State Department to classify NCRI as a front group for MEK.