TEHRAN, Aug 11 (AFP) - Iran`s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned the United States on Wednesday that Muslims would not forgive it for "atrocities" committed in Iraq`s Shiite holy city of Najaf.
"The Muslim nation and the Iraqi people will not pardon these atrocities and the Iraqi nation will react with virulence," he warned in a speech rebroadcast on state radio and television.
"The crimes that the United States is committing in Iraq, particularly in Najaf, one of the holiest places for Shiites, will remain like an indelible stain on the face of arrogant America," he predicted in the speech to cultural attaches of Iranian embassies abroad.
"They bomb, occupy the holy city of Najaf, they force open doors, do not stop at anything in the massacre of the people," he said.
"In the name of democracy and freedom, they break the hearts of Muslims, burn the hearts of Shiites, increase the distance between them and the Muslim nation," he added.
Khamenei denounced what he said was the indifference of the international community over the fighting that broke out Thursday in Najaf, whose center was bombed Tuesday evening by US helicopters. The US army has called on residents to leave the area.
Najaf is home to the mausoleum of Imam Ali, considered by Shiites -- who are the majority in both Iraq and Iran -- as the successor of the Prophet Mohammed.
Since the fall of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, hundreds of thousands of Iranians have made pilgrimages to the holy city.
Najaf`s provincial governor Adnan al-Zorfi vowed Wednesday that US troops would not approach the mausoleum.
"They must stop in Midan Square," on the edge of the district, he said. "If we decide to go into the old city, this will be the job of Iraqi police and soldiers."
A senior US commander had said Monday that Zorfi gave the marines permission to enter the Imam Ali mausoleum in their fight against Sadr`s militia.