Ali Khamenei charges US military in Iraq, Israeli intelligence with attacks that killed Iranian pilgrims

debkafile Special Report
“The main suspects in this crime and crimes similar to that are American security and military forces,” said Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Satuday, April 25, of the string of deadly bombs that left 155 dead in Iraq including dozens of Iranian pilgrims.
“The growth of the poisonous grass of terrorism in Iraq will definitely be written in America’s criminal record and US and Israeli intelligence bodies are the first suspects of that,” he said.
debkafile‘s Iranian sources report that the all-powerful ayatollah was not just accusing the US security and military forces in Iraq of the suicide attacks of the last 48 hours but of “similar” crimes.
The ayatollah’s attack shortly after Hillary Clinton’s unannounced arrival in Baghdad seems to signify a sudden sharp cooling in Tehran-Washington relations – hardly a hopeful starter for the dialogue sought by President Barack Obama.
Two suicide bombers struck separate targets Friday, April 24, killing at least 65 people at the important Shiite shrine of Imam Moussa al-Kadhim in the Kadhimiya district of Baghdad as people gathered for Friday prayers; seven died at a car dealership in Diyala. At least 149 were wounded in both incidents. Thursday, a suicide bomber killed 55 people, including 53 Iranian pilgrims, also in Diyala, while a female suicide bomber killed 28 people in Baghdad. More than 100 were wounded in both attacks.
Khamenei may have been irked by the encounter in Tokyo between US special envoy Richard Holbrooke and Iran’s foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki at a donors’ conference for Pakistan. What exactly happened between them is not known. When asked about a meeting, Holbrook said curtly: “No dialogue. I ran into the foreign minister as we were milling around and we said ‘hello’ and chatted for about a minute or two.”