Azerbaijan, Baku, September 12 /Trend, N. Umid/
The collapse of Camp Ashraf which was the headquarters of the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran (PMOI) is both an Iranian and Iraqi peoples` victory, Iranian Intelligence Minister, Seyyed Mahmoud Alavi said, Iranian IRINN State TV reported.
He also congratulated the Iranian and Iraqi people on the closure of the Camp.
Alavi went on to note that, those members of PMOI who did not commit any murder charges can come back to Iran.
Camp Ashraf housed members of the PMOI, an Iranian exile group opposed to the Iranian government that Baghdad says is in the country illegally.
During an attack on the camp on September 1, Some 52 residents were killed.
The group accused Iraqi troops of carrying out the assault.
Iraqi authorities transferred the remaining residents- fewer than 50- of the Camp in northeastern Iraq to the Liberty Camp in the Baghdad area and announced on Thursday that the Camp is closed.
On September 7, deputy Commander in Chief of Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), Brigadier General Hossein Salami said on Iranian State TV 2 that the attack on Camp Ashraf has strategic importance for the future developments of the region.
Salami also said that "Iraqi people's attack on Camp Ashraf was more important than all previous operations against the PMOI."
It should be recalled that commander of the Qods Force of the IRGC, Qassem Soleimani said that "more than 50 residents of Camp Ashraf were killed in attack and many were among the leaders of the PMOI, during his speech before the Iranian Assembly of Experts on September 3.
Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein allowed the PMOI to set up the camp during the war with Iran in the 1980s.
Around 3,000 PMOI members were moved from Ashraf to Camp Liberty, last year, but about 100 stayed at the old camp in order to deal with leftover property and goods.
The PMOI was founded in the 1960s to oppose the shah of Iran, and after the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted him it took up arms against Iran's clerical rulers.
It says it has now laid down its arms and is working to overthrow the Islamic regime in Iran by peaceful means.
Britain struck the group off its terror list in June 2008, followed by the European Union in 2009 and the United States in September last year.