Iran leader Khamenei blames US for bombings in Iraq

Saturday, April 25, 2009 at 10:52 pm

Iran leader Khamenei blames US for bombings in Iraq TEHRAN: Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blamed Israel and the United States on Saturday for persistent violence in Iraq after two suicide attacks left scores of Iranian pilgrims dead.

“The American and Israeli intelligence apparatuses are the number-one accused… for the spread of the poisonous seeds of terrorism in Iraq,” Khamenei said in a message of condolence to the victims’ families broadcast on state television.

“Those evil brains and sinful hands that established this blind, unbridled terrorism in Iraq should know that this fire will end up burning them,” the Iranian leader added.

Twenty Iranian pilgrims were among at least 58 people killed when two women suicide bombers attacked a Shiite shrine in Baghdad on Friday. Some 80 Iranians were among the 125 people wounded.

Another 52 Iranian pilgrims were among at least 56 people killed in a suicide attack on a roadside restaurant in Muqdadiyah, northeast of Baghdad, the previous day.

Hundreds of thousands of Iranians visit Iraq’s Shiite holy sites each year despite the threat of violence from Sunni extremists.

Shiite majority Iran has consistently demanded the withdrawal of US-led forces from Iraq and blames the continuing US military presence for the persistent bloodshed.

Washington in turn accuses Tehran of fomenting sectarian violence in its western neighbour.