Iran threatens revenge after city attack

Press, 28 October 1982, Page 8

Iran threatens revenge after city attack

NZPA Nicosia The Prime Minister of Iran threatened revenge and to wage “war, war until victory” against Iraq yesterday after an Iraqi bombardment killed 21 and wounded 107 people in the Iranian city of Dezful, according to Irna. the official Iranian news agency. Most of the victims were women and children caught by long' range ground-to-ground missiles while shopping in the city’s main street, Irna reported. The agency said that 15 more people were killed during the day when Iraqi jets bombed the city of Ham, 40km east of the Iran-Iraq border in west central Iran. Irna said that in a message to the people of Dezful, the Prime Minister, Mr Mir Hussein Musavi, declared

that “this brutal attack is enought to prove to the peace advocates of the United Nations and other organisations that peace cannot be established in the region except through the downfall of Saddam (the Iraqi President, Mr Saddam Hussein.) "Saddam’s latest crime shall make the slogan ‘war, until victory’ reverberate even more strongly among our nation. We are certain that our beloved sons at the front will definitely avenge the blood of the martyrs of Dezful,” Irna quoted Mr Musavi as saying. Irna reported that Dezful, 100 km east of the Iraqi border and 200 km north of the oil-refining centre of Abadan at the head of the Persian Gulf, was hit by long range ground-to-ground mis-

siles. The man target was Talqani Avenue in the heart of the city “where the victims were doing their shopping,” the agency added. Irna said that 50 buildings were demolished, 50 more were damaged and added that many people were buried under the ruins. Rescue operations were continued several hours after the attack.

Teheran Radio, reporting on the same incident, quoted its correspondent in Dezful as saying that the city was raided by Iraqi jets using air-to-ground missiles.

Irna said that Abadan also came under heavy Iraqi artillery shelling during the day that wounded one civilian and wrecked several houses and part of the city's sports centre.