Iran calls Saddam's regime 'one of the most brutal' of all time

NICOSIA [MENL] -- Iran on Monday launched a blistering attack on Iraq and termed President Saddam Hussein one of the most brutal men in history.

"No nations in the world have suffered from the madness of their respective neighbors as have the states surrounding Iraq," the Iran Daily said. "He has wielded the sword with all the finesse of a blind drunkard. What he has done to the Iraqi people themselves is a still unfolding story of some of the most brutal human behavior in the annals of history."

Iran accused Iraq of supporting opposition groups against the Teheran regime. This includes support for the Mujahedeen Khalq, with an estimated 30,000 fighters based in Iraq.

On Sunday, Iraq accuses Iran of failing to free 13,000 prisoners of war from the 1980-88 war launched by Baghdad. Iran has insisted that it freed all Iraqi prisoners. Iraq also accuses Iran of refusing to return Soviet fighter-jets brought to Iran in 1990 to escape Allied bombing.

Saddam, in a speech marking the anniversary of the end of the war, accused Iran of betraying its Islamic principles. "Iran, like Iraq's other neighbors, is mounting a siege that incites the American and Zionists aggressors to kill the Iraqi people,'' Saddam said.

Saddam termed Iranian leaders "arrogant, hostile and expansionist although disguised by Islam. This is how the aggression started and the war broke out."