Iraqis Bomb Train; Iran Reports Civilians Killed

Iraqi warplanes bombed a train in southwestern Iran, killing five civilians, and Tehran vowed to retaliate, Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency said Monday.

A military spokesman in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, confirmed the attack and said the train carried troops and military weapons.

Iran reported that five civilians were killed and 15 others were injured in the attack, but it said the train was empty at the time and did not explain where the victims were.

The train was hit near the town of Andimeshk, about 275 miles southwest of Tehran, as it sat on a side track, and several cars were derailed, the Iranian news agency said.

The state-owned Iraqi News Agency said, “The Iraqi pilots reported direct hits and large explosions after hitting the train.”

Iran and Iraq have both escalated the number of attacks against each other in recent months, and Iran is believed to have massed hundreds of thousands of men on the border for a “final offensive” expected to be launched soon.

Observers have speculated that Iran may attack Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city, and Iran on Monday warned that its long-range artillery would bombard the Basra railroad station for 24 hours in retaliation for the train attack. A statement by the Iranian war propaganda office advised people living near the station to evacuate their homes for their own safety.

Despite superiority in equipment, air power and firepower, Iraq has been unable to defeat Iran, and Tehran’s forces have recently gained the advantage in the fighting.

Iraq has repeatedly called for peace talks in the six-year-old war, but Iran’s leader, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, has refused to negotiate as long as Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is in power.

The attack on the train came as a team from the United Nations inspected the wreckage of an Iranian Boeing 737 passenger plane hit during an Iraqi air raid last week on Shiraz airport in southern Iran and an adjoining air base.

The team, headed by Austrian Col. Muler Fenbeck, spoke to witnesses and visited hospitalized victims. Fenbeck said he will submit a report on the attack to U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar.

Iraq’s air force commander, Lt. Gen. Hamid Shaaban, warned Sunday that Iraq would intensify its attacks on Iranian oil and industrial installations after an Iranian missile attack on Baghdad last week.

A military spokesman in Tehran said Iran will “not remain silent” to any such attacks.

Iran Economy Under Fire

The two sides have exchanged air and artillery attacks on oil and industrial facilities since May, when Baghdad said it would use its superior air power to cripple the Iranian economy and force Tehran to the negotiating table.

Monday’s attack on the train brought the civilian death toll on both sides to at least 505 since May.

Meanwhile, five more charred bodies were found Sunday aboard the Panamanian tanker Five Brooks, bringing to 10 the number of crew members killed when the ship was attacked by missiles Friday in the Strait of Hormuz.

The attack was believed to have been the work of Iranian aircraft or gunboats in retaliation for Thursday’s Iraqi air raid on Iranian offshore oil wells.

After the attack, the 19,000-ton vessel was towed to Khor Fakhan, a port in the United Arab Emirates, with its captain, an Indian, and seven crew members on board. The rest of the survivors of the original 39-man crew had earlier been taken to the Emirate of Sharjah for hospitalization.