Iraq Says Warplanes Struck 6 Iran Towns

MANAMA, Bahrain — Iraq reported Tuesday that its warplanes raided six Iranian towns, and it claimed it wiped out a division of Iranian Revolutionary Guards in a battle near the port of Basra.

Iraq said its jets struck Khomein, home town of Iran’s spiritual leader, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and five other towns. It was the first time that Khomein, 160 miles southwest of Tehran, was hit in the 6 1/2-year-old war.

Iran acknowledged that four towns, including Khomein, had been attacked and that several civilians were killed or wounded.

In the ground fighting near Basra, Iraq’s second largest city, an Iraqi military spokesman said troops repelled two Iranian attacks on Iraqis defending an area near Fish Lake. Iraq claimed it inflicted 6,500 casualties.

However, Iran’s national news agency IRNA said earlier that the Iranians were advancing along the road to Basra from Shalamcheh, a border village about 12 miles away. The reports could not be independently confirmed.