Iran's Khamenei condemns US 'malice' over Iraq strikes

• The Iranian govt & nation & I strongly condemn the US's malice," Khamenei said.
• The US carried out the strike in western Iraq in retaliation for rocket fire that killed an American civilian contractor.

TEHRAN: Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday strongly condemned US air strikes on a militant group in Iraq, in his first comments since the weekend raids.

"The Iranian govt & nation & I strongly condemn the US's malice," Khamenei said on his official Twitter account, referring to Sunday's deadly US strikes on the Hashed al-Shaabi militants.

The US carried out the strike in western Iraq in retaliation for rocket fire that killed an American civilian contractor at a military base in northern Iraq on Friday.

In a tweet on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump accused Iran of "orchestrating" that day's storming of the US embassy in Baghdad by protesters angry over the American air strikes.

In response, Khamenei said: "That guy has tweeted that we (the United States) see Iran responsible for the events in Baghdad & we will respond to Iran".

"First, you can't do anything. Second, if you were logical -- which you're not -- you'd see that your crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan... have made nations hate you," he tweeted.