Iran Claims It Captured Iraqi Radar Center

Iran said Monday that it has captured a control center used to direct Iraqi air strikes on oil tankers serving Iran’s Kharg Island terminal in the Persian Gulf.

It also reported downing seven Iraqi planes, for a total of 36 it claims to have destroyed since its Dawn 8 offensive began eight days ago.

Tehran radio, monitored in Bahrain, said the control center, north of the abandoned oil port of Al Faw, which Iran overran a week ago, contains sophisticated European radar and listening devices and was captured intact.

320 Square Miles Claimed

Iran says it has taken more than 320 square miles of the Faw Peninsula, on the west bank of the Shatt al Arab waterway in southern Iraq, during the offensive. Monday’s communique said that 530 Iraqi tanks and personnel carriers have been destroyed and that several others were captured and turned against the Iraqis.

But an Iraqi commander said his troops retook several positions from the Iranians.

“Iraqi troops have eliminated the biggest part of the Iranian force that crossed the Shatt al Arab and are now throwing a chain around other enemy troops,” Lt. Gen. Sabah Fakhri told the official Iraqi news agency. He commands one of three columns that began counterattacking near Al Faw four days ago.

Also on Monday, Iraq said its air force knocked out six bridges in the Iranian cities of Abadan and Khorramshahr used by Iranian reinforcements on their way to the Faw Peninsula.

On the diplomatic front, the foreign ministers of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia arrived in Baghdad for talks with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. They were previously in Damascus, apparently trying to persuade Syria, an ally of Iran, to join moves to end the fighting.