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Police: 28 killed in bombings near Baghdad mosques

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-07-31 21:19

A relative mourns over the body of a man killed in an explosion in Baquba, 60kms north-east of Baghdad, and brought to the morgue of a local hospital. [Agencies]

On Friday, an American military medical team went to Camp Ashraf and evacuated some of the camp's residents who were wounded in the clashes, which began Tuesday when the Iraqis tried to enter the camp to establish a police station inside its fences.

The US military and embassy officials did not immediately respond to questions about how many the medical team evacuated from the camp or where they were taken.

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The violence at the camp, which was until earlier this year guarded by the US military, has raised human rights issues and questions about how Iraq will balance its relations with the US, which has called for restraint, and neighboring Iran, which wants the exiles sent back.

About 3,500 ex-Iranian fighters and relatives live in the camp, first set up in 1986 when they helped Saddam Hussein in the Iraq-Iran war. After the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, American troops disarmed the fighters and confined them to the camp. The Americans handed over responsibility for the camp to the Iraqis on Jan. 1, but maintain a force nearby.

Iraq has said it wants to close the camp, but human rights groups fear that the Iranians could be subjected to punishment or even death if they are sent back to Iran.

A camp resident, Hossein Madani, 49, said US military medics entered the camp Thursday night and left Friday morning, taking with them a handful of injured residents.

"There were thousands of American forces here before. They should come back and take control of the situation," said Madani, who has lived with his wife in the camp for seven years.

Meanwhile, Iraqi police Friday announced they had recovered millions of dollars stolen from a state-run bank in a robbery that left eight guards dead.

Interior ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said all the money was recovered and added that police have detained some of the robbers.

He did not provide further details.

Gunmen killed eight security guards at the Rafidain Bank, making off with nearly $7 million. Police said the robberies appeared to be the work of militants seeking money for operations after their funding was severely curtailed in US-Iraqi military crackdowns.

Police found the money Thursday when they raided the house of an Iraqi soldier, said an interior ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

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