Huge oil refinery in flames as Iraqis win war’s first round

Press, 25 September 1980, Page 1

Huge oil refinery in flames as Iraqis win war’s first round

NZPA Bagdad Iran’s Abadan oil refinery, one of the world’s biggest, was reported in flames last evening, and Iran admitted that it was not working—a casualty -of the Persian Gulf war, in which Iraq appears to have gained the initial upper hand.

Iraqi forces have also captured the Iranian border- town of Mehran, according to the military authorities in Bagdad. On the northern war front, the latest Iraqi corm munique said that Iraqi troops were in full control of the Qasr-e-Shirin area, midway along the frontier between the two countries, and were mopping up the last pockets of resistance. It said that Iraqi forces had shot down an Iranian fighter at Qasr-e-Shirin, a tree-lined market town populated mainly by Kurds, which is about 500 km north of the Shatt-al-Arab. It stands on the strategic main road from Bagdad to Teheran. They had also destroyed a tanker and military equipment, and killed many Iranian soldiers. The Associated Press reported that the Teheran Government has suspended oil refining activities m Abadan, cancelled railway service to most of northem and western Iran from the capital, and rushed reinforcements to confront the invading Iraqi army. The Associated Press reported that. the air war between Iran and Iraq also carried on .yesterday, with both sides claiming heavy tolls in Eves, aircraft, and equipment. Iraq said that its Air Force flew nine bombing and strafing missions into western Iran at daybreak

yesterday, causing heavy damage to seven military airfields and setting ablaze four American-made Phantom jets of the Iranian Air Force, on the ground. Iraqi troops had made more progress towards their objectives in the fighting in the northern, central, and southern Iranian border sectors, the Iraqi command said. It also said that several hundred Iranian soldiers had been captured. Iran said that a total of 140 civilians were killed and 313 wounded in heavy Iraqi air attacks on Iranian cities in Khuzestan in the last two days. Iran denied Iraqi charges that Iranian warplanes struck at civilian targets in Iraq.

In Washington, amid expectations that Iran and Iraq will soon cut off oil deliveries, the American Secretary of State, (Mr Edmund Muskie), was summoned to a hastily arranged White House meeting to discuss the implications of the spreading war.

Reports have indicated that Washington and the Kremlin both wish to remain neutral in the conflict.

Reuters reported last evening from Tokyo that Iraq yesterday stopped shipment. of crude oil from all its ports, according to official Japanese sources.

Bagdad was completely blacked out on Tuesday night after Iranian planes had swooped on the capital five times during the day, inflicting an unknown number of casualties and extensive material damage. However, the city was quiet at dawn yesterday.

Residents said yesterday that several children were killed in Tuesday’s raids, and that four houses were wrecked in central Bagdad.

An army officer had said earlier that 18 people were killed and 40 wounded in one military area.

By nightfall firemen had extinguished fires that burned in the city after the Iranian raids, each of which lasted about 15 minutes. During the night the streets were virtually empty and lights blacked out, but a few cars were seen driving without lights.

Bagdad radio reported that Iranian planes attacked military and civilian targets in several areas of Iraq, including

Bagdad international airport; The official Iraqi news agency said that 67 Iranian aircraft had been shot down.

Onlookers in Bagdad reported seeing several Iranian planes shot down by Iraqi anti-aircraft gunners using Soviet SAM-7 missiles. Two pilots were seen parachuting to the ground. Some citizens regarded the air raids as fireworks displays, and crowded on to balconies to watch the anti-aircraft units in action against the Iranian pilots.

Hundreds of foreigners were pouring into Kuwait from Iraq to escape the fighting between Iraq and Iran — now described by the Iranian President (Mr Bani-Sadr) as a true “holy war.”

In New York, . the United Nations Security Council appealed to the two warring Middle Eastern countries to cease fighting, and negotiate a peaceful settlement of their differences.

Teheran radio said that Iran had destroyed 28 MiG fighters of the Iraqi Air Force, and had pushed back Iraqi troops from Iran’s main cargo port city of Khorramshahr.

Parliament in Teheran was told that 140 Iranian aircraft had struck at Iraqi military targets on Tuesday, the second day of the undeclared war between the two countries after weeks of border clashes.

Iran denied a report by Bagdad radio that the 52 American hostages, held since last November, had been released. Parliament later adjourned until today its debate on the hostage issue.

Teheran radio broadcast a statement from the students holding the hostages, saying that they had been moved to new hideouts.

Iraqi control of Abadan and Khorramshahr would disrupt Iranian imports and cripple its refining capacity, but would not affect .crude oil exports, which are loaded at Kharg Island, further south in the Gulf. Iran' has declared the Hormuz Straits, through which 70 per cent of the Western industrialised world’s oil imports pass, as a war zone, but shipping sources said that traffic through the water-

way remained normal. At least eight foreigners, four Britons and four Americans, were reported killed in Iranian air raids on Iraq’s Zubair petrochemical complex near Basra on Tuesday. The raids set off an exodus of hundreds of foreigners working in the Iraqi oil installations and on construction sites.

The refugees made the 50km journey south, to Kuwait in buses, cars, and taxis. As many as 1200 people from Zubair alone were reported to have arrived at Kuwait.

Mr Bani-Sadr has conceded on Teheran radio that Iranian weaponry is inferior to Iraq’s, but he said that his troops were enjoying “good and high morale.” The President, whose remarks were monitored by the British Broadcasting Corporation, said that the Iranian people regarded. the fighting with Iraq as a true jihad (holy war). “It is in defence of Islam and the territory of an Islamic country. Therefore, it promises us that we shall come out of this difficult test successfully,” he said. At the United Nations, the Security Council, with all 15 members concurring, has appealed to Iran and Iraq to stop fighting and settle their dispute peacefully. The council approved the appeal, issued by its President, Mr Taieb Slim, of Tunisia, after a proposal by the Secretary-Gen-eral (Mr Kurt Waldheim) that the United Nations enforcement body intervene in the crisis.

N.Z.’s oil supplies, page 3

Why U.S. is powerless, page 6