Hundreds demonstrate in DC for Iranian group

WASHINGTON — Several hundred people are demonstrating in Washington to demand that an Iranian opposition group formerly allied with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq be removed from the U.S. list of terrorist organizations.

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and former Rhode Island Rep. Patrick Kennedy were among those speaking in support of the Mujahedin-e Khalq. About 2,000 people filled a street outside the State Department for a rally with confetti and doves released into the air.

The U.S. declared the group a terrorist body in 1997. But a court last year ordered the State Department to reconsider the designation.

The MEK carried out a series of bombings and assassinations in Iran in the 1980s, and fought alongside Saddam’s forces in the Iran-Iraq war. The group says it renounced violence in 2001.