Iran slams U.S. for firing on Iraq demonstrators
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TEHRAN, April 30 (Reuters) - Senior Iranian officials criticised the U.S. military on Wednesday for firing on demonstrators in Iraq and warned Washington the toughest part of its operations in Iraq lay ahead.
"They enter people's homes by force and answer people's demonstrations...with bullets. This is their democracy, mercy and compromise," Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a speech broadcast on state radio.
In separate remarks, influential former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said that U.S.-led troops in Iraq faced tougher times after the war, "when missiles and planes do not have much use".
"Now, the situation is very difficult in Iraq. The (recent) bloodshed in Iraq...is not a trivial matter. It makes Iraqis more angry and Americans more violent. The most important issue comes after the war," the official IRNA news agency quoted Rafsanjani as saying on Wednesday.
The officials spoke shortly after two people were shot dead when U.S. soldiers fired on a crowd of angry Iraqi protesters in the town of Falluja. A U.S. officer said the soldiers opened fire only after shots were fired at them from the crowd.
The Iraqis were protesting about a similar incident in the same town on Monday, when at least 13 Iraqi demonstrators were killed by U.S. troops -- who said they had fired after being attacked by armed Iraqis among the crowd.
Washington, which has labelled Iran part of an "axis of evil", ordered Tehran not to try to exploit a power vacuum after the fall of Saddam Hussein to establish Iranian-style clerical rule in Iraq.
Khamenei denied interfering in Iraq. "The Americans and British should not hold Iran responsible for their failures in Iraq. Iran does not provoke anyone in Iraq," he said.
While officially opposed to the U.S.-led war, Tehran welcomed the fall of Saddam, who used chemical weapons against Iranian troops in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.
Khamenei also criticised Washington for agreeing a ceasefire with Iran's main armed opposition group, the Iraq-based People's Mujahideen. "It (the ceasefire) proved that if terrorism serves the White House's interests it is (considered) very good and helpful," he said.
Iran is concerned that the Mujahideen will be allowed to keep their weapons and continue to use Iraq as a launchpad for attacks against Iran. |
