Navy Still Seeking Source of Missile Fired at Copter

The mystery over who fired a missile at a U.S. helicopter in the Persian Gulf on Monday--and why--remains unsolved, a Pentagon official said Thursday.

Other sources said the chief suspect in the incident is a Greek freighter, but its captain has denied to U.S. officials that his ship fired a missile.

“We don’t know enough to claim to be able to identify any particular ship, and no ship has volunteered that it was the one doing this,” said Robert Sims, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman.

A Navy helicopter on patrol reported that it dodged a missile that was fired as the copter flew within three miles of what was described only as a merchant ship. The helicopter returned to the U.S. destroyer O’Bannon, one of five U.S. warships assigned to the Persian Gulf.

Suspected Vessels Attacked

Iran and Iraq are at war in the region, and both have attacked vessels suspected of trading with the other side. Some merchant ships plying the gulf were reported several months ago to have equipped themselves with missiles.

Based on descriptions from the scene, sources who asked not to be identified said the Navy believes that the merchant vessel involved in the incident is the Norasia Karsten, a cargo ship of Greek registry.

After the incident, the sources said, the ship was tracked to the United Arab Emirates port of Sharjah. There, a U.S. consular officer boarded the vessel and was told by the captain, who was not identified by name, that his ship had been in the area but was not involved in firing any missile, the sources said.

‘One of Those Ambiguities’

Sims, the Pentagon spokesman, said the incident was “one of those ambiguities of life in the ever-dangerous Persian Gulf.”

According to a Pentagon statement Monday, the Navy helicopter was on a “routine surface surveillance mission” in the southern Persian Gulf, 75 miles west-northwest of Dubai, when it “was fired upon by a merchant vessel of undetermined registry.”

The helicopter took evasive action, and the missile “passed within about 500 yards,” the Pentagon said. The helicopter and other U.S. forces in the area took no retaliatory action, officials said.

U.S. warships have continued to operate in the gulf on a regular basis, although the waterway’s strategic importance has been lessened by changes in world demand for the region’s oil.