Missile takes heavy toll as Gulf war hots up

Press, 27 November 1986, Page 8

Missile takes heavy toll as Gulf war hots up

NZPA-Reuter Bagdad

Iraq says an Iranian missile killed 48 civilians and wounded 52 when it hit a densely-populated area of Bagdad yesterday.

The toll was the heaviest this year, during which Iran has fired six surface-to-surface missiles into the city, three of them within the last 12 days. Wailing women and children lined narrow alleys leading to the impact site, where the missile gouged a crater five metres deep and 10 metres across.

A military spokesman said 40 houses were demolished or damaged by the blast, which shattered windows within a halfkilometre radius. Th 3 attack followed heavy Iraqi air raids against targets in Iran, and on the Iranian oil export terminal at Larak Island, at the mouth of the Gulf. Iran had warned that it would strike at Iraqi targets in return for raids launched by Bagdad’s Air

Force. An Iraqi military spokesman said in turn yesterday that Iraq would “use its destructive power to retaliate when the time comes.”

The Iranian news agency, 1.R.N.A., said the latest missile strike had been aimed at an intelligence centre in Bagdad. Iraq said it sent 54 aircraft on simultaneous raids on Tuesday against six Iranian military targets and a railway station used for military transportation. Iraqi jets were also reported to have set three tankers ablaze and destroyed terminal buildings, storage tanks, piers and equipment at Larak Island.

Unidentified aircraft also hit Abu Dhabi’s offshore Abu al-Bakhoosh oilfield on Tuesday, killing at least five rig workers and injuring 24. Iran and Iraq each blamed the other for the strike against a neutral country. The Cabinet of the United Arab Emirates (U.A.F.), of which Abu

Dhabi is a main member, met in emergency session yesterday to discuss the attack. A statement was expected later. In Bagdad, rescue workers searched for survivors and earth-moving equipment shifted rubble from shattered homes as a cold dawn broke over the city. Dozens of people have been killed and more than 100 injured in the six missile attacks so far this year.