Soviet amphibious forces in Gulf

Press, 17 April 1980, Page 8

Soviet amphibious forces in Gulf

NZPA-Reuter Washington

The Soviet Union is massing troops north of Iran and has sent a new 14,000-tonne amphibious commando carrier into the Indian Ocean, giving it the capability of waging a limited ground’offensive to seize oilfields -in the Gulf area, according to American officials.

A Pentagon spokesman, Thomas Ross, told reporters that the new landing ship, the Ivan Rogov, steamed into the Indian Ocean at the week-end with an estimated 400 naval troops aboard. The troops on the Ivan Rogov are comparable to United States Marines, 1800 of whom have been aboard American ships in the area for the past month as part of Washington’s response to the Kremlin’s military intervention in Afghanistan. In a television interview earlier, President Carter’s National Security Adviser (Dr Zbigniew Brezezinski), said he had received reports of a troop build-up in the Soviet Union’s Transcaucasian military district north of Iran.

The build-up, he said, was similar in some respects to the gradual concentration of Soviet military power north of Afghanistan. Pentagon officials said both the United States and

the Soviet Union now had a limited ability to mount seaborne strikes to seize oilfields or other installations in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf. Recent Pentagon estimates said the Soviet Union had a record 31 ships in the Indian Ocean. The United States fleet in the. area, now numbers 26 vessels. The arrival of the Ivan Rogov gives a boost to the Kremlin’s military muscle in the area. The vessel, believed to be the first in a new series capable of carrying up to 800 assault troops on operations against longrange targets, has two helicopter launching pads and is armed with cannon, rockets, and anti-aircraft guns.

South Yemen, the former British' colony of Aden, which is now a strongly pro-Moscow state, now provides supply facilities for Soviet vessels patrolling the Indian Ocean. The Kremlin built its own naval base at Berbera in Somalia but it lost that when its troops and advisers were expelled from the Horn of Africa in 1977.American Officials have now disclosed that the United States wants to take over the big Berbera base I but negotiations have . run [into a snag. I The officials said Somali-

backed insurgents had stepped up their guerrilla warfare in the Ogaden region of neighbouring Ethiopia, which Somalia claims as its territory.

Washington has been unwilling, since the Ogaden desert war two years ago, to provide military aid to Somalia which could be seen as helping or encouraging any cross-border activities. With the Ogaden fighting heating up, officials said, Washington was again holding back on the military aid which Somali officials demanded in exchange for permission to use . the Berbera base. Talks with Oman and Kenya about the use of air iand naval facilities in those countries were proceeding ' more smoothly, oSficials said.

Commenting op Dr Brzezinski’s remarks about a Soviet troop build-up north of Iran, the State Department spokesman (Mr Hodding Carter) said he saw no apparent need for the Kremlin to strengthen its forces in the area.

“Siiice there’s no obvious reason you can think of which is defensive or related to Afghanistan, the question must be posed: Is it not related to possible action to Iran?” he said.