TEHRAN, Aug 6 (AFP) - Influential former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani warned the United States on Friday that its two-day offensive in the Iraqi Shiite Muslim holy city of Najaf might prompt suicide bombings.
"Every day you bomb, kill, jail, torture and destroy the homes of people in Palestine and in Iraq," Rafsanjani told worshippers at the main weekly Muslim prayers in Tehran.
"Just yesterday for the second time, you bombed the city of Najaf and targeted the mausoleum of Imam Ali," he said, referring to the city's holiest shrine.
"There are angry, hurt and faithful people who are ready to sacrifice and blow themselves up to fight against tyrants," Rafsanjani warned, to the customary chants of "Death to America" from the congregation.
"Millions of hearts are bleeding," he said.
Rafsanjani, who now chairs the Expediency Council -- Iran's final arbiter of legislation -- again mocked the rationale for last year's US-led invasion of Iraq.
"They came to become the king of oil and take as much cheap crude as they want from wells in the Persian Gulf but they ended up doubling the oil price from 23 dollars a barrel to 44 to 45 dollars," he said.
Iran has provided no support to the Shiite radical militiamen who have battled US-led troops across central and southern Iraq since Thursday, favouring instead the mainstream Shiite religious parties, which have so far cooperated with the US-backed interim government.
But it has spoken out strongly against foreign intervention in Iraq's holy places, which are revered by Shiites across the world, including in Iran.