WASHINGTON, Dec. 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Committee for Camp Ashraf Residents expresses its solidarity with the anti-government uprisings during Ashura across Iran. The Committee denounces the atrocities committed by the ruling religious fascism whose forces opened fire on unarmed protesters exercising their universal rights and ran them over with armored and security vehicles.

The U.S. families of residents of Ashraf pay their utmost respect to the martyrs of freedom killed by the security forces. Having lost many loved ones either by Iran's tyrannical rulers or their Iraqi agents in the past 28 years, Ashraf families express their deepest sympathies with the families of the fallen for the cause of freedom in Iran.

Chants of "Down with Khamenei," "Down with Dictator," and calls across Iran for the overthrow of ruling theocracy and establishment of democracy is at the heart of the aspirations of the Iranian Resistance and members of Iran's main opposition, the People's Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI/MEK) residing in Camp Ashraf.

Indeed, the dramatic rise in efforts by Tehran and its proxies in the Iraqi government to "uproot" the PMOI in Ashraf is the flip side of the regime's barbaric crackdown on the freedom uprisings at home.

As TIME magazine wrote following the Iraqi forces' deadly assault on 3,400 defenseless residents of Ashraf last July, "The sudden escalation with Ashraf may have more to do with a bruised Iranian regime's bid to stamp out its opponents both at home and abroad than with any pressing Iraqi national interest." Similarly in 2007, the French monthly Afrique Asie wrote that "the Iranian rulers are very concerned and alarmed" because of "peoples' support for Mojahedin-e-Khalq. Today, MEK is highly capable of attracting the young people born and raised after the revolution."

The U.S. Committee for Camp Ashraf Residents cautions the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that bowing to Tehran's demand to forcibly displace Ashraf residents as a prelude to turning them over to the Iranian rulers, in exchange for Tehran's support in the upcoming elections, is betting on a losing horse. As the recent protests in Iraq and Iran show, acting at the behest of the falling Iranian regime is deplored by both Iranians and Iraqis who seek democracy, respect for human rights, and the rule of law in their homelands.

SOURCE U.S. Committee for Camp Ashraf Residents

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