Word: massoud
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Formed just one year ago by Massoud Rajavi, 40, a longtime foe of Khomeini, and his wife Maryam, the N.L.A. consists of 15,000-to-25,000 fighters, and is backed by the Iraqi regime. Although the Iranians acknowledged their defeat at Mehran, they insisted it had been inflicted by Iraqi troops using chemical weapons. Baghdad denied any involvement in the battle. At week's end, however, Iraq did claim that its forces had recaptured the oil-rich Majnoun islands east of the Tigris River, where Iranian defenders had been entrenched since...
...hostages by another Lebanese group, the freeing of Cornea was an acknowledgment by pro-Iranian terrorists of the political benefits of kidnaping. Cornea's captors noted that France had begun to take "serious steps" toward meeting their demands. In June, for example, the French compelled an Iranian opposition leader, Massoud Rajavi, and 300 of his mujahedin followers to leave France for Baghdad. In November France agreed to make an initial payment on a $1 billion loan extended in 1975 by the late Shah to the French nuclear power program...
IRAN AIR. In July 1983 a jumbo jet bound from Shiraz in southwestern Iran to Tehran was hijacked with 386 passengers aboard by six Iranians opposed to Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini. After diverting the plane to Paris, Massoud Rajavi, an exiled leader of the mujahedin opposition to Khomeini, encouraged the hijackers to surrender. One inducement: they would be tried in French courts instead of being deported to Iran. No passengers were harmed...
...arrival at the outskirts of Kabul, the mujahedin opened the boxes and carefully packed each mine in a mixture of camel dung, mud and straw-the mate rials that local peasants use to build walls. Finally, more than two weeks later, ponies piled high with the booty arrived at Massoud's base in the Panjshir Valley. Says a senior Western diplomat in the region: "Considering that we are living in the age of computers and the Concorde, the means of getting help to the mujahedin are extremely primitive...
...among the rebels. Upon receiving intelligence, intermediaries in Oman and Saudi Arabia relay messages east ward to Afghan agents in Pakistan and westward to CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. Two years ago, the six major guerrilla group within Afghanistan had to communicate by messenger; during the latest Soviet assault, Massoud was able to use radios to call for assistance from two other rebel bands...