War Escalates in Gulf; Iran Attacks 3 Ships

Iran and Iraq reported intensified fighting in the Persian Gulf and in the air Tuesday, leaving a cease-fire in shambles and rekindling a war against civilian life.

Iranian ships attacked at least three tankers Tuesday and early today, shipping sources and Lloyd’s of London reported.

Iraq, which broke a de facto truce Saturday after six weeks of calm, said its warplanes were sent Tuesday against Iranian shipping and economic targets inside the country.

Iran, in confirming these latest air raids, said two Iraqi Mirage jet fighters were shot down and another was seen fleeing in flames.

No Injuries in Attack

In one attack early today, an Iranian gunboat hit the 3,717-ton Cyprus-owned cargo ship Leonidas Glory with rocket-propelled grenades, according to the shipping intelligence unit of Lloyd’s of London. There were no injuries in the attack and the ship did not need assistance from other vessels.

Lloyd’s also reported that Iranian Revolutionary Guards in two speedboats attacked the Japanese-owned tanker Diamond Marine in the Strait of Hormuz, hitting it with two rockets on the port side above the waterline. No one was hurt in this attack either, Lloyd’s reported.

These attacks came just hours after a speedboat fired a rocket Tuesday night that struck the South Korean tanker Astro Pegasus, which was about 40 miles off Dubai, en route from Jubail to Singapore with a shipment of Saudi petroleum products, gulf shipping sources told the Associated Press.

There were no casualties in the attack, which damaged a boiler on the 82,000-ton tanker’s port side, the sources said. No assistance was required, and the tanker anchored off Dubai for repairs.

Earlier Tuesday, an Iranian speedboat attacked a Spanish ship, the 120,353-ton Munguia, about 50 miles north of Bahrain, shipping officials said.

The Iranians fired machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades at the ship, setting the engine room ablaze. No casualties were reported, and salvage tugs were reported on their way to the burning vessel.

On Monday, a Revolutionary Guards speedboat attacked a Kuwaiti-flagged cargo vessel north of Dubai. There were no casualties in that attack.

While Iran does not admit to its attacks on neutral shipping, it acknowledges retaliating for Iraqi air strikes on oil installations.

Diplomats and Arab analysts have speculated that compared to the Iraqi air strikes, the Iranian response may be deliberately low-key.

The diplomats suggested that Iran may be trying to place the diplomatic onus on Iraq for rekindling the fighting in defiance of the U.N. Security Council’s call for a cease-fire in a July 20 resolution. Iraq accepted the truce, but Iran has not given a definitive answer.

Baghdad radio on Tuesday repeatedly noted that the Iraqi air strikes were designed to force Iran to accept the cease-fire resolution.

“Out of its responsibility toward its territory, sovereignty and the security of its citizens, and in fulfillment of its commitments to regional security, Iraq will continue to exercise its firm, legitimate right to cut off Iranian oil supplies until the war ends and until the Iranian regime responds to the will of the international community and accepts the U.N. Security Council resolution as an indivisible whole,” the broadcast said.

The Iraqi statement came after the United States condemned Iraq’s resumption of the tanker war and appealed for adoption of a cease-fire “with teeth.”

An Iraqi high command statement said Iraqi warplanes hit three “large naval targets,” Iraqi shorthand for oil tankers, in the gulf during a 12-hour period Tuesday.

Since resuming the “tanker war” against civilian shipping on Saturday, Iraq claims to have hit seven Iranian ships. Iran exports all its oil by ship, whereas Iraq--which has lost its only access to the gulf because of the fighting--sends its oil out by pipeline.

Iraqi warplanes also bombed the Marun oil field in southwest Iran, as well as hitting an iron and steel factory and a power transmission station in Esfahan in central Iran, the Iraqi broadcast said.

Tehran radio, meanwhile, said the Iraqis “bombed a number of civilian areas, including industrial units,” in Khuzistan and Esfahan provinces.