US Defeated By "Spiritual Glory" Of Najaf: Khamenei

TEHRAN, Aug 30 (AFP) - Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Monday said US forces fighting militia in Najaf were defeated by the "spiritual glory" of the Iraqi Shiite holy city.
He was quoted by state television as speaking on the occasion of the birthday of Ali, son-in-law of the prophet Mohammed and Shiite Islam`s revered first Imam, who is buried in Najaf.
"This year`s anniversary coincided with the ferocious and dastardly insult of the occupiers against the holy shrine of Imam Ali," Khamenei told a crowd of Islamist students.
"Despite their modern equipment, the occupiers failed before the spritual glory of this holy place and this is one of the amazing incidents of our time."
The battle in Najaf ended last week when Iraq`s Shiite spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani brokered a peace deal as US and Iraqi government forces pounded the area around the Imam Ali shrine where rebel cleric Moqtada Sadr`s Mehdi Army militia were holding out.
In a meeting with university lecturers and students, Khamenei urged young people to take Imam Ali, killed in Kufa in 661 AD by the rival Caliph, as an outstanding model for justice and spirituality.
Referring to Iran as a "source of hope for the world due to its confrontational position" towards the United States, Khamenei warned that "the world arrogance has targeted Iranian youth" in order to shut off the source.
"Today, we are in the middle of a cultural-political battlefield, a war of dual identity," the all-powerful leader noted.