Iran welcomes Saddam's downfall
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Khamenei said U.S. had lost international credibility.
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TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iran's supreme leader has said his country is delighted Saddam Hussein has been removed from power in Iraq, but condemned the coalition attack as military aggression with imperialist designs.
Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei also described the United States as "the great Satan" in an axis of evil.
The coalition's campaign was a military and political failure, he said, because it took much longer than they expected, and because the United States and Britain sacrificed democratic principles to achieve military objectives.
He also accused the United States and U.S. news media of fabricating the number of U.S. casualties and said they had lost international credibility.
Khamenei's comments on Friday are in line with many of the public statements from Arab leaders, including Iraq's, about the United States' and Britain's involvement in the war in Iraq.
He said the reason the United Kingdom got involved in the conflict was to share in the war booty of oil-rich Iraq.
He also said Iranians were suspicious that Saddam offered no resistance in Baghdad, despite the presence of more than 120,000 Iraqi troops there.
Meanwhile, a group of up to 60 Iraqis living in Iran demonstrated against Saddam in front of the Iraqi embassy in Tehran, and later broke into the embassy compound and took documents.
Also, the Iranian Interior Ministry said Thursday up to 100,000 Iraqi refugees had reached the western Iranian border near Mehran. The refugees will not be allowed to enter Iran, but they will be provided food and shelter on the Iraqi side of the border, a ministry spokesman said.
Tehran has prepared a camp for about 25,000 people on the Iraqi side of the border. Iranian officials also asked international organizations for immediate assistance to help care for the refugees, because of the large number expected.
