PARIS – Thousands of supporters of an Iranian opposition group called on the European Union and the United States to remove the organization from terror blacklists at a massive rally yesterday outside Paris.
The Paris-based National Council Resistance of Iran – an umbrella group that includes the blacklisted People's Mujahedeen of Iran – was removed from Britain's list of banned terror groups last week. But PMOI leader Maryam Rajavi said the group's status in the United States and EU was hindering its ability to fight for regime change in Iran.
In a speech at the Paris rally, she called the terrorist label “unjust.”
“Do not deprive the world from the most effective means to combat the religious fascism and terrorism,” Rajavi, dressed in a blue suit and head scarf, told the boisterous crowd. “Instead, side with those who can bring the Iranian people freedom.”
Although the PMOI participated in Iran's Islamic Revolution, it later became opposed to the clerical government. Members of the group moved to Iraq in the early 1980s and fought Iran's Islamic rulers from there until the United States invaded in 2003.
The group said more than 70,000 people attended yesterday's rally at an exhibition center in the northern Paris suburb of Villepinte, including many people bused in from neighboring countries.
Associated Press
Bomb at apartments
in Lebanon kills one
BEIRUT, Lebanon – At least one person was killed and 28 others were wounded early yesterday when a bomb ripped through an apartment building in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, security officials said.
The explosion occurred in an area that was the scene of fierce sectarian fighting this month between government and opposition supporters, in which nine people were killed and 44 others were wounded.
Yesterday's blast was caused by a bomb placed in an elevator in the building in Tripoli's Bab el-Tabaneh district, whose Sunni Muslim residents support the government, said the officials in Beirut and Tripoli. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Shortly after the blast, three people were hit by sniper fire in the pro-government district, the security officials said. The fire came from the pro-opposition neighborhood, they said.
Associated Press
Four police officers
in Algeria shot dead
ALGIERS, Algeria – Gunmen attacked patrolling police cars and a nearby police station on the eastern Algerian coast, killing four officers and wounding two, Algerian media and local officials said yesterday.
The El-Watan newspaper and other dailies said about 30 gunmen ambushed a two-car police patrol Thursday on a road near the village of Les Aftis, about 220 miles east of Algiers on the Mediterranean coast.
Three police officers, known as gendarmes, were killed in the ambush, a local security official told The Associated Press by telephone on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with the media.
Minutes after that ambush, other gunmen opened fire on a municipal police station nearby when the officers inside tried to rush out in support of their colleagues. One officer was killed in that assault, according to the security official and media reports.
Security officials and the local media blamed the attack on a resurgent terrorist group long known by its French abbreviation, GSPC, that has become increasingly active since it vowed allegiance to al-Qaeda in 2006.
Associated Press
