Iran condemns U.S. in Iraq, Clinton sees progress

By Arshad Mohammed and Waleed Ibrahim

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The United States and Iraq on Saturday dismissed fears a rash of bloody bombings could tip Iraq back into all-out sectarian war, while Iran said Washington was to blame for the attacks on Shi'ite Muslims.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, visiting Baghdad after bomb blasts that killed 150 people in two days, rejected the charge from Tehran.

The attacks, concentrating on Shi'ite pilgrims in Baghdad and Diyala province, bore frightening echoes of incidents that led to the sectarian slaughter of 2006-07, and fueled fears of a resurgence in fighting just as violence had been dying down.

"The reaction from the Iraqi people and leaders was united in rejecting that violence and refusing to allow it to set Iraqi against Iraqi, which was obviously one of its intended goals," Clinton told a news conference.

The attacks targeted in large part Shi'ite Muslims, many of them pilgrims from Iran. In the past, such attacks have brought revenge killings against the once-dominant Sunni minority.

Iran's top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, blamed Tehran's old foes, the United States and Israel.

"The main suspects in this crime and crimes similar to that are American security and military forces," he said in a statement read on state radio on Saturday.

He said U.S. forces, on the pretext of fighting terrorism, had occupied an Islamic country and "killed tens of thousands of people there and increased insecurity there day after day."