Soviets watch U.S. watching Libya

Press, 16 January 1986, Page 8

Soviets watch U.S. watching Libya

NZPA-Reuter Washington The United States and Libya have heated up the rhetoric and scrambled fighter jets in a war of nerves over United States charges that Libya supports terrorism.

Reagan Administration officials said that two Navy F-18 jets were launched to intercept two Libyan MiG--25 fighters over the Mediterranean on Tuesday when the Libyan planes flew near a United States military reconnaissance aircraft.

The Libyan jets returned to their base after a look at

the American reconnaissance plane and there was no hostile action, said the officials. “The Libyan jets showed no hostile intent and nobody was threatened,” one official said. “But given the delicate nature of relations now, we scrambled fighters from the aircraft carrier Coral Sea during the incident.” Relations between the two countries have been tense, with President Reagan cutting all United States economic ties with Libya and accusing the Libyan leader, Colonel Muam-

mar Gadaffi of supporting terrorism. Colonel Gadaffi has denied responsibility for attacks at the Rome and Vienna airports that took 19 lives.

A United States Defence Department spokesman, Mr Robert Sims, said in Washington that Soviet ships Libya and the alleged supplying of Libya with Soviet anti-aircraft missiles were a “significant and dangerous escalation” of tensions in the region. Pentagon officials said the United States was sending a second aircraft carrier

to the Mediterranean from the Indian Ocean. They said the USS Saratoga was expected to pass through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean today. Reagan Administration officials said that the two Soviet-built Libyan MiG-25s flew out over international waters about noon (Libyan time) and approached a U.S. Navy electronic surveillance plane. The officials said the incident occurred over international waters north-east of Tripoli. Libya claims territory 320 km off its northern shore, including the Gulf of Sirte. But the United States says the gulfs waters are international. Two U.S. Navy F-14 jets from the aircraft carrier Nimitz shot down two Libyan Su-22 jets in 1981.