US formally removes MKO from terrorist organizations list

The United States has formally removed the anti-Iranian Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) from the US State Department's list of terrorist organizations.

The MKO was taken off the State Department’s blacklist on Friday, a week after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent the US Congress a classified communication about the move. 

The MKO, which has murdered over 17,000 Iranians since the victory of Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979, fled to Iraq in the 1980s, where it enjoyed the support of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and set up Camp Ashraf in the eastern province of Diyala, near the Iranian border. 

The group also cooperated with Saddam in the massacres of Iraqi Kurds and in suppressing the 1991 uprisings in southern Iraq. 

The MKO has been listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community and has committed numerous terrorist acts against Iranians and Iraqis. 

Iran has repeatedly called on the Iraqi government to expel the group, but the US has been putting pressure on Baghdad to resist the calls. 

MHB/HGL

Source: PressTv (28/09/2012): http://presstv.com/detail/2012/09/28/264019/us-formally-takes-mko-off-terrorist-list/