Jul 26, 2020 09:55 Asia/Tehran [Updated: Oct 31, 2020 08:53 Asia/Tehran]

Tehran (IP) - Sunday, July 26, is the anniversary of Operation Mersad carried out jointly by Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and the Army against the US-backed terrorist group Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) on the western borders of Iran.

Iran PressIran News: Operation Mersad was launched on July 27, 1988, in Kermanshah province, western Iran, to counter an attack by a terrorist group backed by Saddam of the Iraqi Ba'athist regime.

Two days before Operation Mersad, the MKO, who had gathered their forces on the Iranian-Iraqi border and were equipped with heavy and semi-heavy weapons by Saddam's regime, began invading Iranian territory.

The leaders of the MKO thought that the forces would cross the main roads of Iran without encountering a major obstacle and would reach Tehran in a short time and occupy the capital of Iran.

However, in Operation Mersad, Iranian forces surrounded a large number of elements of the terrorist group in the Pataq Strait (or Mersad) in western Iran, and after three days of fighting, they finally won.

‘Mersad’ is an Arabic word meaning ambush; the name was intended for this operation due to the planned ambush carried out by the military forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

More than 4,800 members of the MKO terrorist group were killed and wounded in the operation.

A large number of the militants either killed or captured were senior members of the terrorist group.

The MKO has carried out numerous terrorist attacks against Iranian civilians and government officials since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979. Out of the nearly 17,000 Iranians killed in terrorist attacks over the past four decades, about 12,000 have fallen victim to MKO's acts of terror.

Washington and the European Union have removed the MKO from their lists of terrorist organizations. The anti-Iran terrorists enjoy the freedom of activity in the US and Europe and even hold meetings with American and EU officials.

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