BAGHDAD, Dec 9: Iraq’s interim Governing Council decided unanimously on Tuesday to expel the several thousand members of the People’s Mujahedeen, branding the Iranian opposition force a “terrorist organization”.

“The Governing Council unanimously decided to expel from Iraq by the end of the year the People’s Mujahedeen because of the dark history of this terrorist organization,” said an official statement.

The statement did not say where the people would be sent when they are expelled, but that its offices would be closed and its arms and financial resources confiscated.

The money would “be given to the compensation fund for victims of the former fascist regime” of Saddam Hussein.

“Iraqi individuals and bodies have the right to bring complaints against this organization for its crimes and ask to be compensated by the funds this organization has both inside and outside the country,” the council said.

The group’s central Baghdad offices have been deserted for more than a month, security guards at a neighbouring hotel said.

The People’s Mujahedeen set up base in Iraq in 1986 and carried out regular cross-border raids in Iran.

Several thousand Mujahedeen militiamen were disarmed by US forces following the fall of Baghdad in April and barred from undertaking military operations.—AFP