Iraqi Warplanes Strike Targets in Iran and Gulf : Tehran’s Forces Attack Oil Tanker; Perez de Cuellar Leaves on Peace Mission

Iraq said its warplanes bombed industrial centers in Iran and a “large naval target” in the northern Persian Gulf on Thursday, the day before the U.N. secretary general begins a peace mission to both nations.

Iranian forces, meantime, continued their harassment of Persian Gulf shipping with a rocket attack on a Cypriot-registered tanker.

U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar left New York on Thursday and, after an overnight stop in Paris, is due in Tehran this evening. He said he remained hopeful that his weeklong mission to the troubled region will bring a truce in the seven-year-old Persian Gulf War.

“I hope that I can extract from both sides a very clear-cut reaction to my ideas,” Perez de Cuellar told reporters as he left U.N. headquarters Thursday.

An ‘Effective Strike’

Perez de Cuellar’s optimistic comments came just hours before the official Iraqi News Agency, monitored in Cyprus, reported that Iraqi warplanes scored an “accurate and effective strike” on an unidentified vessel Thursday night in a tanker holding area east of Iran’s Kharg Island oil terminal.

Earlier, salvage executives based in the gulf said that Iranian commandos in at least one speedboat attacked the 232,164-ton tanker Haven shortly after midnight with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns, causing some damage to the tanker’s superstructure but no casualties.

The tanker, managed by a shipping firm with offices in London and Greece, was carrying crude oil from Saudi Arabia to Indonesia.

Iraq said its air raids will continue until Iran complies with the July 20 cease-fire resolution passed unanimously by the U.N. Security Council. The Iraqis have said they will accept the truce if the Iranians do, but Iran has not given a definitive answer.

‘Legitimate Deterrence’

The official Iraqi News Agency quoted a war communique Thursday as saying: “Iraq will continue striking further blows until the Iranian regime finds that its only option that can be accepted and conforms with the interests of the region’s people is peace.” It called the air raids “legitimate deterrence.”

According to the communique, “large formations” of warplanes made “destructive raids” on factories, power plants and communications centers “deep inside Iranian territory” during daylight hours Thursday.

It said all aircraft returned safely from the attacks on the cities of Shahabad, Garand, Maragha, Doroud and Bakhtaran in western Iran.

Industrial Targets Hit

An earlier dispatch from Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency said Iraqi jets bombed several industrial centers in Bakhtaran province Thursday, killing or wounding at least 63 civilians.

Iran’s official Tehran radio said Revolutionary Guards shelled Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city, through the night and morning Thursday, causing “heavy damage” to the airport, railroad station, television station and military garrison.

Industrial targets were bombarded and set afire in nearby Amarah, Zubayr and Qalah Diza, Tehran radio said, and military installations in Iraq’s southern port of Umm al Qasr also were shelled.

11 Deaths Reported

Iraqi communiques said Iranian artillery also bombarded the northern city of Sulaimaniyah, killing 11 civilians and wounding many others. They reported eight civilians killed in Basra.

Bahrain announced Thursday that its defense forces found a mine drifting in coastal waters and defused it, the Gulf News Agency reported. Mines have occasionally been found near the coast of the island emirate. Officials say they apparently float south from the war zone.

No Khomeini Talks

As he left on his Persian Gulf mission, Perez de Cuellar said he did not plan to meet with Iran’s revolutionary patriarch, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, during his two-day visit to Tehran.

However, Perez de Cuellar said he will meet with Iranian President Ali Khamenei, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati and Hashemi Rafsanjani, Speaker of Iran’s Parliament, before flying to Baghdad.

In Iraq, the secretary general said, he will meet with President Saddam Hussein and Foreign Minister Tarik Aziz. He is due to return to New York on Sept. 17.

Other Truces Rejected

Khomeini’s regime has rejected previous U.N. cease-fire resolutions because they do not name Iraq as the aggressor, and it has criticized this one on the same grounds. The war began with an Iraqi invasion in September, 1980, after several border skirmishes over control of the strategic Shatt al Arab waterway, which makes up part of the border between the two countries.

Meanwhile, U.S. Navy Secretary James Webb departed for the gulf Thursday for an inspection of the U.S. warships there, Pentagon officials said. He is scheduled to return home over the weekend.