Iranians Attack U.S.-Operated Tanker in Gulf

An Iranian gunboat Thursday attacked an American-operated oil tanker in the Persian Gulf only a few miles outside the Kuwaiti oil terminal where U.S. warships are expected to begin naval escort duty this month.

Reports from Bahrain and Dubai, centers of salvage operations in the gulf, said the tanker Peconic was hit by 18 rocket-propelled grenades and machine-gun fire from the Iranian vessel, which attacked at midday about 60 miles southeast of Kuwait’s Al Ahmadi oil terminal.

No injuries were reported among the tanker’s 40-man crew, who managed without assistance to control a fire started in the starboard fuel tank.

Registered in Liberia

The 273,205-ton vessel was on its way to load oil at a Kuwaiti terminal and continue on to Saudi Arabia. The Peconic is registered in Liberia but is owned and operated by Gray Shipping Inc., a subsidiary of Universe Tankships Inc. of Delaware, and is under charter to Texaco Panama Inc., a Texaco subsidiary.

The vessel reportedly changed course after the attack and was heading for Bahrain to undergo repairs.

The daylight attack came after two days of Iraqi air raids on Iran’s oil export installations at Kharg Island and is seen as a bold Iranian warning of the dangers of Kuwait’s continuing support of Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War, now nearly seven years old.

The raid on the vessel also pushed oil prices to their highest levels since January, 1986.

Contracts for August delivery of West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark crude oil, climbed to $21.23 a barrel in active trading Thursday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up 35 cents from Wednesday’s close.

Britain’s North Sea Brent crude shot up 25 cents to $19.65 a barrel on the European spot market in reaction to escalating tensions in the gulf, which is the major source of the West’s oil.

Shortly after the attack on the Peconic, Iran’s official Tehran radio cautioned the United States against proceeding with the plan to provide U.S. Navy protection to Kuwaiti oil tankers in the gulf. The military escort operation is due to begin later this month.

‘Dangerous Consequences’

By intervening in the gulf, the broadcast said, Washington is “entering quicksands which will have more dangerous consequences than the U.S. military ever experienced in Lebanon or Vietnam.”

Iran’s warning came as Democrats in the U.S. Senate narrowly lost in their bid to force the body to take up a resolution urging the Reagan Administration to temporarily shelve its controversial Persian Gulf policy. On Wednesday, the House approved a largely symbolic resolution urging the Administration to delay the “reflagging” plan by 90 days.

Under the plan, 11 tankers owned by Kuwait will be converted into U.S.-flag vessels, entitling them to escort by American Naval vessels stationed in the Persian Gulf. The reflagged ships will be escorted through the Strait of Hormuz--at the mouth of the gulf--to deter attacks by Iran, which has hit scores of merchant ships belonging to Iraq and its allies, including Kuwait.

Since the reflagging plan was announced, the Iranians have warned that the United States, in protecting Kuwaiti vessels, will become entangled in the Persian Gulf War.

Warning From Iran

“In order to ward off any future repercussions, perhaps one should advise the Reagan Administration that in addition to the 11 flags which are scheduled to be placed on Kuwaiti ships, it ought to prepare more flags to decorate the boxes containing the corpses of American military personnel who enter this perilous place,” the Tehran radio broadcast said Thursday.

The broadcast did not mention the attack on the Peconic. As a ship flying the Liberian flag of convenience, the tanker would not have qualified for U.S. naval escort even though it is operated by an American firm.

Supertanker Waiting

The first of the 11 Kuwaiti ships destined to get the American flag, the supertanker Al Rekkah, which will become the Bridgeton, is lying south of the Strait of Hormuz awaiting the go-ahead to enter the gulf.

The U.S. Navy has increased its presence in the gulf in preparation for the escort operation and is now believed to have eight warships there. In addition, the aircraft carrier Constellation is stationed in the Indian Ocean, and the battleship Missouri is believed to be preparing to leave the West Coast shortly for duty in the gulf.

The U.S. force has been operating under a heightened state of alert since an Iraqi warplane, in an apparent error, attacked the American frigate Stark in May, leaving 37 sailors dead.