Baghdad: Around two dozen rockets hit a place near Baghdad international airport on Monday, targeting a camp housing People's Mujahideen Organization of Iran, an exiled Iranian opposition group.
"According to reports from Camp Liberty, as of midnight tonight, more than 40 residents were wounded or injured in the missile attack on the camp," Shahin Gobadi, a Paris-based PMOI spokesman, said in a statement.
The bombardment caused major destruction in the camp, including fires and deep craters, Gobadi added.
Another PMOI spokesman, Shahriar Kia, said the group suspects that "Iraqi groups affiliated with the Iranian" government were responsible for the shelling..
A witness who lives near the airport heard about twenty explosions that a security source said was a bombardment targeting the airport, reuters reported.
The security forces later found a truck used as the rocket launcher in Agargouf area in western Baghdad, it said.
A similar attack occurred on October 29, 2015, killing at least 26 Iranian exiles when some 25 Katyusha rockets were fired on the camp.
The Iranian exiles have been relocated two years ago under the supervision of the United Nations mission in Iraq from their former base Camp Ashraf near the city of Khalis, some 60 km northeast of Baghdad, to Camp Hurriya, a former US military base.
The United Nations has frequently urged the international community to speed up its efforts to resettle the Iranian exiles in third countries.
