Iraq claims attack on ships

Press, 26 May 1984, Page 10

Iraq claims attack on ships

NZPA-Reuter Bagdad The Iraqi Government said last evening that its Navy and Air Force had attacked six ships at Khor Musa, a northern Gulf inlet approaching the Iranian port of Bandar Shahpur. An Iraqi military spokesman gave no immediate indication of what type of ships had been attacked, but the area has been the site of Iraqi attacks on merchant ships throughout its 44month war with Iran. The spokesman said that the attacking Iraqi force had discovered the vessels in convoy, driven home a fierce attack and “destroyed and set ablaze” all six ships. All the Iraqi aircraft had returned safely to base, he said. • The attack had been fresh evidence of Iraq’s ability to tighten the blockade on all Iranian terminals at the head of the Gulf and to destroy any vessels trying to approach them, he said.

The Iraqi report came after yesterday’s assertion from Bagdad to have struck at two large vessels south of the Iranian oil terminal at Kharg Island in the northern Gulf. So far there has been no confirmation of either report from independent sources. But shipping sources in Bahrain said that the Libenau tanker Chemical Venture had been set ablaze earlier on the western, Arabian side of the Gulf in a missile attack which the American State Department said had been conducted by an Iranian Phantom jet fighter-bomber. The Bahrain sources said that the fire aboard the 29,000-ton tanker had been put out late yesterday (N.Z. time). In Washington, a State Department spokesman, John Hughes, said that Saudi aircraft had scrambled to chase the Iranian Phantom but did not say whether they had made

contact. One of Iran’s senior clergymen-politicians indicated a shift in Iranian tactics yesterday, saying that Iran would only close the Strait of Hormuz at the rnouth of the Gulf if its exports were completely cut off. Hojatoleslam Hashemi Rafsanjani said that Iran had expected an Iraqi coun-ter-attack on the Iranianoccupied Majnoon Islands, in south Iraq, but that Iraq had instead launched attacks in the Gulf. At the United Nations the Security Council was to begin debating allegations by six Arab States that Iran had committed aggression against ships sailing to and from their Gulf ports. The complaint was lodged by the members of the Gulf Co-operation Council — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates — after the spate of recent attacks blamed on Iranian aircraft.

Although these countries are officially neutral in the Gulf conflict, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are generally believed to provide Iraq with financial and other support. Today’s security council debate is expected to be opened by Kuwait’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Sheikh Sabah alAhmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, who had a brief meeting yesterday with the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr Javier Perez de Cuellar. Qatar’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Ahmed ibn Saif al-Thani, was also in New York for the council session. It will be chaired by the Soviet Ambassador, Oleg Troyanovsky, president of the Council for May. The Iranian delegation declined yesterday to confirm that it would ask to participate in the debate, but is thought likely to take the opportunity to press its case against Iraq.