Iran bombards Iraqi towns; gunboats end exercises

Press, 6 October 1987, Page 10

Iran bombards Iraqi towns; gunboats end exercises

NZPA-Reuter Bahrain Iran has bombarded Basra and other Iraqi centres as its gunboats, described as a major shipping threat by a French naval captain, ended exercises in the Gulf. An Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps commander said in an interview that half a million volunteers were ready for suicide missions in the Gulf using hitherto unknown resources. In continuing diplomatic activity, Jordan asked Pakistan's visiting

President, Mohammed Zia-ul-Haq, to help end the seven-year-old war, while Iran praised the Soviet stance on the war as “correct” and said its Oil Minister would visit Moscow. Teheran’s news agency, IRNA, said Iranian artillery on Sunday shelled economic, military and industrial targets in south Iraq, including the warbattered city of Basra. Basra residents, contacted by telephone, said shells landing in all parts

of the city, including densely-populated areas, had killed or wounded large numbers of civilians. Iraq said 16 people, including two women and nine children, had died in Basra and three more were killed in shelling of the northern towns of Sulaymaniyah and Qala Diza. Iran said Iraq had shelled its southern port cities of Abadan and Khorramshahr, wounding a number of civilians and

damaging houses and shops. The Iranian Prime Minister, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, said on Sunday that three days of naval manoeuvres, codenamed “Freedom Island” and previously unannounced, bad ended after testing Iran’s power to deal with any plots in the Gulf. IRNA said the exercises by the Revolutionary Guards Corps tested Iran’s ability to defend its main oil terminal at Kharg Island and Gulf oilfields.