THE CRISIS IN THE WHITE HOUSE : Iran Missile Slams Into Iraqi Capital

An Iranian missile slammed into a highly populated area near the center of the Iraqi capital at dawn today, and Baghdad residents said they feared high casualties.

The surface-to-surface missile hit the city of 4.5 million people and damaged buildings and scattered glass over a half-mile radius.

The missile, the third this month and the sixth this year, woke people in districts several miles away from the site of the explosion.

Seven people were killed in the last two missile attacks, on Nov. 14 and Nov. 22.

Iran said on Monday that it would bombard Iraqi cities for 48 hours in retaliation for Iraqi air raids on Bakhtaran in western Iran which killed or wounded several civilians.

Oil Platforms Attacked

The missile attack followed a report Tuesday by the United Arab Emirates, which said that missiles fired from a “foreign aircraft” hit two French-operated oil platforms 100 miles off Abu Dhabi, killing five people and injuring 24. Hours later, Iraqi warplanes hit three oil tankers at an Iranian oil terminal, shipping sources said.

The attack off Abu Dhabi occurred Tuesday morning and set two linked oil platforms ablaze in the Abul Bukoush oil field. A missile hit the production unit on one oil platform and another struck the living quarters on a second platform, starting fires and accounting for the heavy casualties, oil executives in the Persian Gulf said.

There were conflicting claims on who was responsible for the raid. A United Arab Emirates government statement said only that the attack was carried by a lone “foreign aircraft.”

U.S.-Made Aircraft

The official Iranian news agency IRNA said the attack was carried out by Iraqi warplanes. However, witnesses said the attacking plane was a U.S.-made F-4 Phantom. Iran has Phantoms in its air force, but Iraq has only Soviet and French combat planes.

There was no immediate comment from Iraq.

The Emirates government statement said the Cabinet has been summoned to an urgent meeting this morning to discuss “this brutal attack and take the appropriate measures in this respect.”

“The (Emirates) Foreign Ministry has also informed members of the Gulf Cooperation Council about the details of the incident,” the statement said. The other members of the council are Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain.

Six hours after the raid, Iraqi warplanes flew their longest mission in more than six years of war, rocketing Iran’s Larak Island oil export terminal in the southern Persian Gulf and setting three tankers ablaze.

Raid Called ‘Unique’

It was the first raid on Larak, 750 miles from Iraq’s southern air bases. It is one of two makeshift terminals established at the gulf’s southern end because of constant Iraqi raids that have disrupted traffic at the main Iranian export facility on Kharg Island in the northern Persian Gulf.

A war communique carried by the official Iraqi news agency and monitored in Nicosia, Cyprus, described the raid as “unique.” It said Larak was “turned into an island of wreckage and fire.”

Iraq said the attackers knocked out anti-aircraft missile sites protecting Larak, then blasted jetties and tankers at about 4 p.m.

Iran and Iraq have been fighting since Sept. 17, 1980, when Iraq abrogated a 1975 accord dividing the strategic Shatt al Arab waterway and invaded Iran’s Khuzistan province.