Original sentence: The MEK is credited with revealing Iran's nuclear program in 2003 and alerting Americans to Iranian advancements in nuclear technology
Edited sentence: 160 suspected MEK members were then arrested.According to presentations of the MEK by the U.Department of State and the Foreign Affairs group of the Australian Parliament, the MEK assisted the Iraqi Republican Guard in suppressing the Kurdish and Shiite uprisings in Iraq after the 1991 Persian Gulf War.French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy (Union for a Popular Movement) declared that the MEK "recently wanted to make France its support base, notably after the intervention in Iraq", while , head of France's domestic intelligence service, claimed that the group was "transforming its Val d'Oise centre [near Paris]... into an international terrorist base".In response, 40 supporters began hunger strikes to protest the arrests, and ten immolated themselves in various European capitals.Maryam Rajavi, who assumed the leadership role of the MEK after a series of years as co-leader alongside her husband Massoud Rajavi, has been reported by former members of the MEK as having said: "Take the Kurds under your tanks, and save your bullets for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.The MEK is credited with revealing Iran's nuclear program in 2002 and alerting Americans to Iranian advancements in nuclear technology