Iran, Iraq Battle Fiercely for Control of Road to Basra

Iraqi and Iranian troops battled fiercely Sunday for control of a strategic road in southern Iraq, and the two combatants hit at least three vessels in their continuing assault on Persian Gulf shipping.

Iraq also declared Iranian airspace a “prohibited zone” and warned international airlines to stay away.

Heavy fighting was reported in marshes east of the Tigris River in Iraqi territory. The Iranians were battling to ford the river and seize the strategic highway from Baghdad to the southern port of Basra.

Informed sources in Tehran said Iranian troops have already seized six miles of the road. A Baghdad newspaper quoted an Iraqi commander as saying the Iranians crossed the river on Saturday but were driven back.

Both sides reported inflicting heavy casualties in the fighting, which Iraq described as the fiercest of the war.

Iran said that it has killed or wounded more than 7,000 Iraqis since its offensive began last week, and Iraq’s information minister said 15,000 Iranians were killed in fighting on Saturday night and Sunday. Neither side gives details of its own casualties, and there was no independent confirmation of the tolls.

Cutting the road to the key port of Basra would leave Iraq’s second-largest city linked to the rest of Iraq by only a road from the west.

Diplomats in Tehran said the Iranians would be likely to make an assault on the Iraqi port city if they gained a firm hold on the west bank of the Tigris. This would serve as a possible prelude to a “final offensive” against Baghdad, they said.

An Iraqi military spokesman, meanwhile, warned international airlines that Iranian airspace will be a “prohibited war zone” starting Tuesday evening.

Iraq said it intends to continue air attacks on Iranian cities and will not be responsible for the safety of commercial aircraft.

“Being concerned for the safety of passengers entering and leaving Tehran, we warn all international airways that all Iranian airspace is considered a prohibited zone and any aerial target will face direct danger because of the difficulty in distinguishing targets,” he said.

In London, British Airways announced it is canceling all its flights to Tehran and Baghdad indefinitely on the advice of the British government.

There was no immediate reaction from other major airlines serving Tehran, which include Air France, Lufthansa and Swissair. But in Baghdad, aviation sources said that Lufthansa, Kuwait Airways and Alitalia had already suspended flights to the Iraqi capital after an Iranian air attack there last week.

In the Persian Gulf, at least three vessels, two of them tankers, were hit Sunday in attacks Sunday spread over hundreds of miles of the vital waterway.

Gulf shipping sources said a Liberian tanker, the Caribbean Breeze, was hit in an apparent Iranian attack off Qatar, and 10 crewmen were hurt, three seriously. The ship, chartered to Kuwait’s national oil company and carrying 1.8 million barrels of Kuwaiti crude, was set ablaze but the fire was later put out and the ship was reported under tow to Qatar.

Another tanker, said to be the Agarita, was hit and set ablaze shortly after leaving Kharg Island with a load of crude oil, and an oil-field supply vessel was hit near the Iranian terminal.

Iraq has frequently carried out attacks on shipping serving Iran’s Kharg Island terminal.

Meanwhile, Tehran radio reported that Iraq kept up air attacks on Iranian cities, hitting the southwestern city of Dezful and the nearby village of Andimeshk with nine missiles that killed 19 people.

On the Iraqi side, a resident of Basra said by telephone that the city was still being shelled by Iran, with an unofficial estimate of between 60 and 70 people killed.