U.S., Iran Agree on Repatriation of Captured Crew

The United States and Iran reached agreement Thursday to repatriate crew members of an Iranian naval vessel captured three days ago as they were planting mines in the Persian Gulf.

Officials in Oman, a country just outside the Persian Gulf, said that under the agreement, reached in negotiations through the Omani government, the 26 Iranians will be taken there on Saturday before being handed over to Iran.

The Iranian vessel, the amphibious landing craft Iran Ajr, was attacked by two U.S. Army helicopters late Monday as it was laying mines in a busy international sea lane in the central gulf about 50 miles northeast of Bahrain.

Held under guard aboard two of the U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf, the captive crewmen are to be flown to Oman by U.S. Marine helicopters and turned over to the Red Crescent Society, the Muslim equivalent of the Red Cross, sources in the Omani capital of Muscat said. An Iranian air force plane will be standing by in Oman to fly them home, the sources added.

Meanwhile, as U.S. warships and helicopters continued to sweep the central gulf for mines planted by the Iran Ajr, it was reported that yet another vessel had struck a mine and sunk.

Gulf-based shipping sources said the 180-ton Marissa, a small Panamanian-flag survey ship, sank Tuesday in the northern gulf after hitting a mine near Iran’s Farsi Island.

The incident occurred in the same area where a British-flag oil tanker, the Gentle Breeze, was attacked by a speedboat carrying Iranian Revolutionary Guards a few hours earlier.

However, it was not immediately reported because no distress signal was sent from the Marissa before it went down, shipping sources said.

One crewman from the Marissa was missing and presumed dead, while three were rescued, the sources added.

They said that the Marissa was classified as a survey ship of the kind normally used to chart channel depths and other maritime data. However, it was not immediately clear who had commissioned the surveys or why the ship was in the dangerous waters off Farsi, where the paramilitary Revolutionary Guards maintain one of the naval bases from which they venture forth in speedboats to harass shipping from nations allied with Iran’s war foe, Iraq.

8th to Strike Mine

The Marissa was the eighth ship to hit a mine in the Persian Gulf in a little over four months. Other such vessels included the Soviet ship Marshal Chuikov, which became the first tanker to hit a mine when it was damaged May 16; the Kuwaiti supertanker Bridgeton, which had been re-registered under the U.S. flag, and the Anita, a supply ship operating out of the United Arab Emirates that sank after striking a mine outside the gulf Aug. 15.

Iran was widely believed to have planted all these mines, its denials notwithstanding.

Unwilling to risk a direct clash with the United States, yet frustrated by its inability to effectively hit back at Iraqi attacks on its shipping, Iran was believed to have resorted to the use of mines as a “simple, cost-effective and anonymous way,” in the words of one shipping source, to threaten the convoys of reflagged Kuwaiti tankers that the U.S. Navy began escorting through the gulf in July.

However, there had been no absolute proof of this until last Monday’s attack on the Iran Ajr and the seizure of a number of mines aboard the Iranian ship. Even though Iran denied that the ship was planting mines, the incident must have been deeply embarrassing to the Tehran regime, diplomats said.

‘Caught Red-Handed’

“They have been caught red-handed, which means it will be more difficult for them to deny planting mines in the future,” one diplomat said.

The 26 sailors who survived the attack on the Iran Ajr, as well as the bodies of the three crewmen who were killed, will be taken by ship and air to Oman’s Seeb Airport, sources in the gulf and in Washington said. At the airport, in the presence of Iranian diplomats, they will be handed over to the Red Crescent, Omani officials said.

Because most of the small countries on the Arab side of the gulf had strong reservations about involving themselves in such a sensitive matter, it took some negotiating to set up the prisoner transfer, diplomatic sources said. Oman, which maintains good relations with Iran, finally agreed, but it has barred reporters from covering the transfer.

The repatriation will take place while Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger is visiting the region. The secretary’s precise itinerary has not been announced for security reasons, but the Pentagon has said he will visit U.S. Navy ships in the gulf and will also stop in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, and then Egypt, before returning to the United States.

No Decision on Ship

In Washington, a Pentagon official said Thursday that no decision has yet been made on what to do with the captured ship. However, the official said it will not be returned to Iran, adding, “We’re sure as hell not going to give it back.”

The Pentagon source suggested that the vessel might be used for target practice or scrapped after U.S. intelligence experts finish combing it for evidence of Iranian mine-laying activities. There were reports Thursday that American commandos found charts, code books and operations manuals aboard the ship that support U.S. charges that the ship was part of a larger Iranian mine-laying operation.

Videotapes made by U.S. helicopters involved in Monday night’s attack are not usable as evidence of Iranian mine-laying because of their poor quality, a Pentagon official said. However, infra-red still photographs of the Iranian ship placing mines are expected to be presented to the public and the United Nations as part of the U.S. case against Iran, the official said.

Crew Members Named

Also in Washington, the Moujahedeen, a group of Iranian opponents of the revolutionary government in Tehran, provided a list of crew members of the Iran Ajr and additional details of the mining operation. In a press conference Thursday, the group said the information came from authoritative sources within the government of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

The Iranian ship is also known as the Rakhsh, the group said, and is attached to the Hormouzghan fleet of the Iranian navy, stationed at Bandar Abbas, a port city on the northern shore of the Strait of Hormuz. The normal commander of the ship was replaced the night of the U.S. attack by two higher-ranking officers, who apparently were put aboard to supervise the mining operation, the Moujahedeen said.

The mine-laying was timed to coincide with the visit to the United Nations of Iranian President Ali Khamenei, so that he could portray himself as in a “position of strength,” the Moujahedeen said.

The group also claimed to have evidence that the Khomeini government had built a pipeline to transport poison gas to the southern front to be used in its seven-year-old war with Iraq. In addition, the group said that its agents have learned that Tehran is strengthening its terrorist capability in southern Lebanon in anticipation of a renewed series of terrorist acts there.

Neither of these charges could be confirmed independently Thursday.

Meanwhile, some of the ships attached to the U.S. Middle East Force were involved Thursday in searching the seas off Bahrain for mines, while others were escorting the Kuwaiti tanker Gas Prince down the gulf in the 10th U.S. convoy since the reflagging operation began two months ago.

The 46,723-ton gas carrier left Kuwait early Wednesday and was reported Thursday to be about halfway down the 550-mile waterway, proceeding at a slow pace while the seas ahead were being swept for mines.

Times staff writer John M. Broder in Washington contributed to this article.