Iraqi Planes Attack Tehran, 9 Other Iranian Cities

Iraq said its warplanes bombed Tehran and nine other Iranian cities Saturday. Iran reported civilians were killed or wounded in the raids.

The state-run Iraqi News Agency said Iraqi jets flew 136 combat missions against Iran during the day, bombing 10 cities and two oil fields.

It said anti-aircraft fire downed one Iraqi jet inside Iranian territory. Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency said the plane crashed in southeastern Iran and the pilot was captured.

The Iranian agency confirmed the Iraqi raids on eight Iranian cities and spoke of civilian casualties, but it said Iranian anti-aircraft fire drove away the Iraqi jets from Tehran and the holy city of Qom.

Independent confirmation of the conflicting claims, which were monitored in Nicosia, was not immediately possible.

Iraq said Iranian long-range artillery shelling killed three people in the northeastern town of Halabja and wounded four in the southern port city of Basra, which has been the target of an Iranian ground push that began Jan. 9.

The Iraqi agency reiterated earlier claims that Iraqi troops were in “full control” of the southern front and “kept up their intensive barrage on the remnants of enemy troops.”

IRNA said Iranian forces in the area were fortifying their positions, while pounding Iraqi positions with “heavy mortar and artillery fire.”

In the capital city of Baghdad, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said Iran’s casualties in the push toward Basra were so heavy that its “rulers will not be able from now on to mobilize the number of troops which were wiped out during recent battles in the southern sector of the front,” the Iraqi agency reported.

“The days ahead will witness the great victory which will be celebrated by all Iraqis and Arabs,” he said at a televised ceremony during which he awarded medals of bravery to about 1,000 soldiers, some in wheelchairs.

It was the first time Hussein has awarded medals in a mass ceremony.