Iran retaliates by bombing Bagdad

Press, 7 October 1987, Page 10

Iran retaliates by bombing Bagdad

NZPA-Reuter Bahrain Iran lobbed two missiles into Bagdad after Iraqi planes pounded four tankers used by Iran for oil storage, including the world’s biggest ship.

The surface-to-surface missiles crashed into residential areas of the Iraqi capital within six hours of each other. Bagdad spokesmen said a number of people were killed in each attack, but gave no precise figures. The missiles damaged houses, shops and a secondary school. Iran said one of the targets was an Army training centre. The first hit the city of four million people on Monday evening and the second 25 minutes after midnight (local time).

An Iranian spokesman, quoted by the national news agency Irna in Teheran after the first missile strike, said it was in response to Iraqi air raids on residential and industrial targets in Iran.

In the Iraqi attack on the four tankers at the southern end of the Gulf,

one vessel, the 256,263 ton Shining Star, was set on fire at Hormuz terminal.

Shipping sources said two of three other tankers hit — the World Admiral, Brazil Star, and the Seawise Giant, at 564,739 tons the biggest ship in the world — were not seriously damaged.

One source said he believed a fifth vessel bad been hit but no details were available. Iran said one of the Iraqi aircraft was shot down but spokesmen in Bagdad said all returned safely to base. Earlier on Monday Iran had vowed to “expand retaliatory operations’* after Iraqi pilots flew the length of the Gulf to attack the tankers and offshore oil installations.

The Iraqi pilots flew their fighter-bombers the 880 km length of the waterway to hit the tankers, which are used to

store crude and oil products from Iran’s main oil terminal at Kharg Island in the north of the Gulf. Kharg has been a frequent target of Iraqi air raids.

Bagdad said its aircraft also badly damaged oil installations on Lavan Island about halfway along Iran’s Gulf coast, and others hit the Cyrus off-shore oilfield and a Revolutionary Guards base on Farsi Island. Teheran radio said the raids killed and wounded several people and caused damage, but gave no details. Shipping sources said they knew of only one casualty, a crewman on board the World Admiral.

• As news of the raids broke, a convoy of Japanese tankers began leaving the Gulf on orders from Tokyo because of earlier attacks on shipping. Japanese officials said

nine vessels were involved. A Reuter photographer spotted five loaded tankers and a gas carrier 35 miles from Dubai. Outside the waterway six Japanese tankers waited for clearance to enter.

Japan imports half its oil through the Gulf and Tokyo shipping sources expected the ban to be lifted in a few days if the convoy was left unscathed.

An Iranian gunboat interrogated the convoy and had a tense exchange with a Danish ship before it stopped for a routine inspection as it headed into the Gulf, shipping sources said.

Lloyd’s Shipping Intelligence in London identified the Danish vessel as the 21,551 ton container ship Chastine Maersk and said warning shots were apparently fired across its bow.