Iraqi warplanes retaliate against cease-fire rebuff

Press, 7 October 1980, Page 8

Iraqi warplanes retaliate against cease-fire rebuff

iNZPA-Reuter Bagdad A prolonged war in the Middle East oilfields seemed inevitable yesterday after heavy fighting shattered an Iraqi bid to end its bloody conflict with Iran. Iraq reported a series of air, ground, and naval clashes a few hours after it said Iran had ignored a unilateral Iraqi cease-fire.

The military command in Bagdad said its force had destroyed two jumbo jets ’at Teheran’s Meherabad Airport and oil installations in the Iranian capital’s southern suburbs.

Iraq, retaliating for what it called Iranian violations of the brief truce, which had gone into effect at dawn on Sunday, said its planes also raided airfields and oil refineries elsewhere in Iran.

Twenty Iranian aircraft had been shot, down over the battle fields and Iraqi territory. Ten Iranian naval vessels had been sunk in the vital Shatt al Arab waterway, which runs between the two countries, the command said.

The Iraqi high command said that its forces had destroyed 11 tanks and killed 18 soldiers in repulsing counter-attacks in the Iranian oil province of Khuzestan. Iraqi losses were given as five dead and 16 wounded. A statement issued earlier on Sunday by Iraq’s ruling Revolutionary Command Council had said its troops would “inflict further defeats on the Persian enemy” because of its refusal to respond to the unilateral truce. The council reaffirmed that .Iraq would stop fighting as soon as Iran heeded its appeals for an t end to . the war. There seemed little, prospect of an erid , to. hostilities. " I.

Iraq has made it Clear that it intends to hold on to captured border land, while Iran has refused to negotiate until all Iraqi troops have left its territory. Meanwhile, Iran accused Iraqi warp:anes of attacking targets in towns throughout the country yesterday.

The Iranian Joint Staff confirmed that two of Iraq’s Soviet-made Tupolev’ bombers raided west Teheran, apparently aiming at Meherabad airport. But they missed the end of the runway, hitting instead a road, a fly-over and a sand-processing factory where two workers were killed and others injured, airport sources said. The Joint Staff said one of the bombers was damaged by anti-aircraft fire and was thought to have crashed.

In Pol Dokhtaf in Luristan Province, a military statement said, four p ople were killed and 21 injured. A total of six Iraqi MiG fighterbombers were reported to have been shot down in various localities.'

Teheran-based correspondents who yesterday reached the beleagured cargo port of Khorramshahr reported that the main ' v city was .still in the hands of Iranian militiamen, despite Iraqi assertions that only pockets of resistance remained in southern districts.

But a Reuter correspondent, who was among the group, said the merciless Iraqi artillery bombardment which has continued almost since the start of the war resumed yesterday afternoon with the apparent purpose of flattening what was left of the town.

Diplomats in Teheran said they could see no negotiated end in sight to the War, but predicted it would wind down in scale as both sides suffered heavy losses in men and equipment. The Soviet Union, which has supplied Iraq with most of its military hardware under an. agreement between the two countries, had made an unexpected offer to grant military aid to Iran, the official Pars news agency reported on Sunday.

But the Iranian Prime Minister (Mr Mohammad Ali Rajai) appeared to reject the offer, made by the Soviet Ambassador (Mr Vladimir Vinogradov) at a meeting on Saturday night.. Protesting at Moscow’s arms. supplies to Iraq, inter-

vention in Afghanistan ai other actions Mr Rajai sal that as long as Soviet-Irar ian relations remained ur satisfactory his country wa not ready to trade its ind< pendence for anything th Kremlin had to offer.

In Beirut yesterday in formed Arab sources sav that King Hussein of Jordai had made a secret visit t< Bagdad after pledging fu' support, including possiblmilitary aid to Iraq. >». King Hussein has bee' • Iraq’s most outspoken sup porter since the war brokf out two weeks ago. Asked in an interview be fore he went to Bagdad whether Jordan would give military aid to Iraq if the need arose, he said: “The possibility is there. “Iraq has not asked for military assistance and all that I can say now is that we are fully on the side of Iraq.” The sudden and unannounced visit of King Hussein to Bagdad raised speculation that the Iraqi President (Mr Saddam Hussein), his forces bogged down in their advance through the Iranian oil province of Khuzestan, was taking up the option of Jordanian military’ aid. The Teheran newspaper “Keyhan” reported yesterday that eight people had been executed in Susangerd, in Khuzestan, on charges of collaborating with Iraqi forces. Susangerd, near the border with Iran, was recently occupied for a day by the ' Iraqis. Those sentenced were . said to have welcomed Iraqi troops. 1

On Friday 15 others were executed in Susangerd on charges of treason and spying for Iraq, Pars News Agency reported. > Japan and Iran have agreed on the evacuation to Teheran of the 745 Japanese workers at a joint petro-chemical plant being built in Bandar Khomeini; southern Iran. The Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary (Mr Kiichi Miyazawa) said yesterday that the agreement was reached between the Japanese Ambassador to Teheran (Mr Tsutomu Wada) and the Iranian Oil Minister (Mr Mohammad Javad Tondguyan).