On April 8, 2011, Iraqi forces – backed by tanks, armored personnel carriers, and artillery – launched a massive assault on defenseless and unarmed Iranian dissidents residing in Camp Ashraf, killing 36 and wounding several hundreds of the residents. The April attack, described by the Chairman John Kerry of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as “massacre”, left 36 dead and hundreds wounded. The US forces stationed nearby refrained from intervening to stop the bloodshed.