U.S. Warplanes Destroy Libya Missile Site, Sink Patrol Craft : Strike After Attack by Kadafi Forces; No American Losses

American military forces destroyed a Libyan missile control site, sank a patrol boat and severely disabled another small vessel Monday after U.S. Navy planes operating in international waters were attacked by up to six surface-to-air missiles.

None of the U.S. planes were hit, and there were no American casualties, Administration officials said. White House aides said there appeared to be no survivors aboard at least one of the Libyan vessels, which normally carry a crew of 27.

White House spokesman Larry Speakes called the attack on the U.S. aircraft “entirely unprovoked and beyond the bounds of normal international conduct.”

The episode, which extended over a period of more than five hours, grew out of widely publicized Navy maneuvers designed to assert America’s right to operate in the Gulf of Sidra off the coast of Libya in the eastern Mediterranean. The United States and virtually all other nations have rejected an attempt by Col. Moammar Kadafi to claim that the entire body of water, which measures 150 miles from its mouth to the nation’s coast, as Libyan territory.

Speakes said the U.S. forces have been operating in the area since Sunday afternoon because, beyond the 12-mile internationally recognized limit, “the Gulf of Sidra belongs to no one. . . All nations are free to move through international waters and airspace.”

Confrontations over the gulf have become a recurrent theme in the Reagan Administration’s continuing struggle against Kadafi and his believed role in international terrorism. In 1981, U.S. planes shot down two Libyan fighters in another conflict over the disputed territory.

Monday’s confrontation came after planes from carriers of the U.S. 6th Fleet crossed the so-called “line of death” which Kadafi has drawn across the mouth of the gulf.

After the Libyans fired at least four and possibly six missiles at the U.S. planes, American carrier jets fired anti-ship Harpoon missiles at the two Libyan vessels. The first was left afire and dead in the water after being hit by two missiles fired by an A-6 attack aircraft from the carrier USS America.

The second Libyan vessel, which was equipped with weapons with a 38-mile range, was “severely damaged” in a later attack, Defense Secretar Caspar W. Weinberger reported at the Pentagon.

American forces also fired high-speed missiles at the Libyan missile launching site located at Sirte on the country’s northern coast, taking out the site’s radar equipment.

“The SA-5 site is out of action,” Weinberger said. Although the launchers were not targeted, the system is blind without the radar.

“There were no U.S. losses,” Weinberger said.

The missile site was installed with the assistance of Soviet technicians and advisers in recent months, and became operational in January, Pentagon officials have said. However, officials said they did not know if any Soviet citizens were at the site when the missiles were fired or when the attack on them occurred.

Four Soviet ships were in the area, but played no significant role in assisting Libyan defenses, a Pentagon official said. Such vessels can spot aircraft operating in the region and, presumably, intercept radio communications.

Speakes denied that the presence of U.S. military aircraft and ships in the Gulf of Sidra constituted a deliberate provocation to Kadafi. “This was not an act designed to provoke a response or to humiliate Kadafi,” Speakes said. “We simply can’t allow other nations to dictate where we can or can’t go.”

He pointed out that U.S. forces have crossed the so-called “line of death” seven times since 1981. But he acknowledged that the Administration “did not, of course, proceed in this area with our eyes closed” and that future incidents could occur if Kadafi did not capitulate.

“We reserve the right to take additional measures as events warrant,” Speakes said, labeling Libya “an outlaw regime ... up to no good.”

The Administration summoned congressional leaders to the White House at 4:30 p.m. to inform them of the U.S. military action. Some had been consulted by telephone through the morning as the confrontation was building.

The drama in the Mediterranean began unfolding at 7:52 a.m., when Libyan forces fired two long-range SA-5 surface-to-air missiles at U.S. aircraft in the Gulf of Sidra. Two additional SA-5s and an SA-2 followed at 12:45 p.m. EST. A sixth missile, another SA-5, was fired at 1:14 p.m.

At this point, Speakes said the Administration had evidence that the radar equipment at the Libyan launch site at Sirte was “preparing to lock on to U.S. aircraft” for a possible hit. With that knowledge and after the Libyans had fired six missiles, the U.S. forces responded at about 2 p.m. with a missile assault on an approaching Libyan patrol boat.

Speakes described the boat as a high-speed missile patrol boat with a 40-mile range. He said it was approaching the American fleet and was “deemed to have hostile intent.” After the U.S. forces fired, Speakes said the boat was “dead in the water, burning, and appears to be sinking. There are no apparent survivors.”

An hour later, at about 3:00 p.m. EST, the U.S. obliterated the radar equipment at the Libyan launch site at Syrte by firing high-speed anti-radiation missiles.

At roughly 3:30 p.m. EST, U.S. forces fired upon and crippled a second Libyan patrol boat.

Speakes said the Administration would not be deterred by the incidents and would continue its presence in the Gulf. The White House filed a notice of intent with Congress Friday afternoon that it was pursuing the military exercise.

In addition, the Soviets were informed that the U.S. was conducting a “Freedom of Navigation” exercise in the area “so that the channels of communication would be clear,” Speakes said. Libya is regarded by the Administration as a client state of the Soviet Union.

Reagan was briefed early Monday on the situation and then kept up to date throughout the day by national security advisor John M. Poindexter. At 2:30 p.m. EST, after U.S. forces had fired on the first Libyan patrol boat, Reagan met with Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger and the chairman of his Joint Chiefs of Staff, William J. Crowe Jr.

Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.), who met with Reagan on a budget matter at 4 p.m. EST, said there was no “crisis atmosphere” in the White House that he could detect.

At the Pentagon, however, there was considerable confusion--and less certainty than at Speakes’ briefing--about what missiles were fired. Weinberger said that Libya fired four SA-5s but that U.S. officials were not sure whether additional missiles were fired.

Weinberger pointed out that the United States was continuing to conduct Naval and flight operations in the area, and “if anyone intereres with us, we’ll take appropriate action.”

While U.S. aircraft first crossed south of the “line of death” at 10:20 p.m. Sunday, U.S. carriers had been conducting flight operations in the region since early Sunday morning, and had flown 400 “sorties” from the flattops by late Monday.

However, the aircraft and U.S. vessels accompanying the carriers had never approached closer than within 40 miles of the Libyan coast, a Pentagon official said.