PARIS (AP) —

Several thousand supporters of an exiled Iranian opposition group have marched through Paris, calling for an end to Iran's clerical regime 40 years after the Islamic revolution toppled Iran's monarchy.

The Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, widely referred to in the West as the MEK, were joined at Friday's rally by an array of speakers ahead of the march, from former and current French politicians to a one-time Algerian prime minister and a Syrian opposition figure.

Crowds waved posters of group leader Maryam Rajavi and founder Massoud Rajavi — not seen since 2003 in Iraq, where the MEK once had a camp and waged war against Iran before being disarmed by invading U.S. troops.

Security was tight during the rally and march. The group's annual rally last year was targeted in a bomb plot.