May 9, 2003	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 6, 1424

NORTHEASTERN IRAQ, May 8: US forces said here Thursday they had begun taking over positions of the armed Iranian opposition based in Iraq, in line with a previously agreed ceasefire.

Officers with the US 4th Infantry Division said they were taking up checkpoints in northeastern Iraq which had been held by the People’s Mujahedeen.

“They have been extremely cooperative, very helpful. All our interactions with them have been positive,” said Lieutenant Colonel John Miller.

The United States and the European Union have officially classified the People’s Mujahedeen, which is believed to have thousands of fighters in Iraq, as a terrorist organization.

Iran’s spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, blasted the United States for making a ceasefire deal with a group it labels terrorist while at the same time waging an international “campaign against terror”.

The People’s Mujahedeen regularly claims attacks inside Iran against the government, and shares the goal of the US troops to prevent any entry of Iranian agents and influence into Iraq.

It includes a large number of women fighters and some Iranians with dual US nationality.

“We are coming in to provide security and stabilise the region and the first way to do that is to establish checkpoints to try to prevent the movement of arms through the country and conflicts between different factions,” Miller said.

US special forces had earlier negotiated a ceasefire with the MEK, requiring them to stop all hostile acts against coalition forces in Iraq and collect their heavy weapons in staging areas.

US officers say the MEK has a well organised division-sized force based in Iraq’s Diyala province along the Iranian border, including dozens of tanks, armoured personnel carriers and artillery pieces.

Most of their equipment was supplied by Saddam Hussein’s deposed regime. —AFP