The Iraqi army had stormed Camp Ashraf on Tuesday after a months-long tense stand-off around the base north of Baghdad, but were forced to call in riot police to quell violence when residents tried to resist.

Iraq's defence ministry struck a tough tone, insisting the offensive against the People's Mujahedeen base in the province of Diyala was justified under a security agreement signed by Baghdad and Washington in November.

"It's our territory and it's our right to enter, to impose Iraqi law on everybody," defence ministry spokesman General Mohammed Askari told Al-Arabiya television.

"They (camp residents) have to submit to the law, and to Iraqi sovereignty. The SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) authorises us to do what we did."

Under the pact, Iraqi security forces took over responsibility for the camp three months ago from US forces, which had disarmed the some 3,500 residents following the 2003 invasion which toppled Saddam Hussein.

Riot police have now left the camp and been replaced by the Iraqi army following negotiations between Diyala provincial police chief General Abdul Hussein al-Shamari and the People's Mujahedeen on Tuesday, a Diyala police official told AFP.

He said the injury toll among camp residents had risen to 300, including 25 women. About 110 members of the Iraqi security forces were also wounded in the violence, he said, adding that more than 50 camp residents had been detained.

The Mujahedeen, which has been fighting the Iranian regime since the 1960s, set up the camp up in the 1980s -- when Saddam was at war with the Islamic republic -- as a base to operate against the Iranian government.

"We are so worried that they might take the people arrested to the Iranian regime and hand them over," Mujahedeen spokesman Shahriar Kia said by telephone from Camp Ashraf on Tuesday.

A France-based spokesman for the National Council of Resistance of Iran, which includes the People's Mujahedeen, called the raid "a crime at the request of and for the pleasure of the Iranian supreme guide."

US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said in Washington, however, that the Iraqi government had "stated to us that no Camp Ashraf resident will be forcibly transferred to a country where they have reason to fear persecution."

A US administraion official also said Washington -- which regards the Mujahedeen as a terrorist outfit -- had been assured by Iraq that the residents would be treated in a "humane" manner.

The offensive followed a declaration by the People's Mujahedeen that it was ready to return to Iran if the authorities there would guarantee its members would not be abused.

It also coincided with a visit to Iraq by US Defence Secretary Robert Gates but the top US commander in Iraq, General Ray Odierno, said the US military had no advance warning.

Ashraf is home to around 3,500 Mujahedeen supporters and their families.

The People's Mujahedeen was founded in 1965 in opposition to the shah and has subsequently fought to oust the clerical regime which took power in the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The Iranian government has accused the Mujahedeen of a key role in fomenting the deadly protests which followed last month's disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

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