Tankers attacked as oil threat looms

Press, 29 February 1984, Page 10

Tankers attacked as oil threat looms

PA Nicosia In what seems to be a further escalation of the Gulf war, Iraqi warplanes attacked oil tankers anchored near Iran’s vital oil export terminal on Kharg Island, Bagdad Radio reported. “Today is the first day of a blockade that we have decided to impose in this area, which we had already declared as a restricted military zone,” said an Iraqi military communique broadcast on State radio and television stations yesterday. Iraq did not say how much damage the attacks had inflicted. Meanwhile, in Washington, Administration sources said that a United States Navy destroyer warned off an Iranian patrol plane with machine-gun fire and flares on Monday when the plane approached American warships in the Gulf. At the same time, the American guided-missile destroyer Lawrence warned away an Iranian Navy frigate by radio without any shots being fired, said the sources, who spoke only on condition they remain anonymous. The episode is believed to

be the first time that any American warships have opened fire in the area, although there have been repeated instances since early 1980 of Iranian warplanes flying out to look at American ships patrolling the Gulf and the northern Arabian Sea. American officials had reported previously that carrier-based planes had intercepted Iranian aircraft and diverted them from positions where they could threaten the American fleet. It was not known how close the Iranian plane, a P3C, and the Iranian frigate came to the American ships, but the sources said the Iranian craft had penetrated an Bkm safety zone which the United States had proclaimed pubjjcly. The exact location of the latest incident was not disclosed, but it was said to have occurred inside the Gulf near the critical Strait of Hormuz through which passes 20 per cent of the oil shipped to non-Communist countries. An Iraqi military spokesman warned “all oil tankers and ships against approving Kharg and against dealing with the Iranian regime which exports crime and

chaos to all States of the world.” Kharg is Iran’s main terminal for oil exports in the Gulf region. In the 42-month war, Iran and Iraq often issue conflicting claims about battle action. Most of the reports cannot be verified because Western reporters are rarely allowed in the war zone. Iraq released neither the number nor the nationality of the oil tankers it said it had attacked. It was also not known if anyone was killed or injured in the air attack. The Iraqis have threatened to attack Kharg Island, 210 km south-east of Iraq, and prevent Iran from exporting oil. As recently as late January, Iraq threatened to fire on any ship sailing into Kharg. Iran has countered those Iraqi threats by pledging to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the Gulfs only access to the open sea. An estimated 20 per cent of the non-Communist world’s oil passes through the strait. The raid was “to punish the Iranian regime for attacking our people and our territories,” said the unidentified Iraqi military spokesman, who spoke on State

television. “We will continue our attacks until the enemy halts its aggression and agrees to abide by the United Nations Security Council resolutions” which call for an end to the war and free navigation in the Gulf region, the spokesman said. Industry experts in Nicosia believe that Iran exports most of its daily output of 2.4 million barrels of oil through the Kharg terminal and through the port of Bushehr, lower down on the Gulf coast. Iran said Iraq had been using “chemical bombs” in air raids since Sunday, and had killed or wounded more than 400 Iranians with the bombs in the last 24 hours. © Japanese shipowners have told two oil tankers heading for the Gulf not to go to the Kharg terminal. The two tankers, due to reach Kharg between March 7 and 10, have been told to wait at Sirri Island at the southern end of the Gulf. The Japanese Transport Ministry said no tankers owned or chartered by Japanese firms were now at Kharg and only the two vessels diverted to Sirri had been due there in the next few days.