U.S. Navy to Sink Iranian Ship Caught Laying Mines : Seized Vessel Wired With Explosives

The U.S. Navy will sink the Iranian ship it caught planting mines in the Persian Gulf, Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger said today after arriving for a five-day visit of the region.

Iranian President Ali Khamenei, meanwhile, said the U.S. attack will increase Iranians’ “rigor toward the United States.”

Iraq said its warplanes raided a ship off Iran and charged that Iranian artillery shelled the Iraqi city of Basra for a second day, killing seven civilians and damaging a hospital.

Weinberger was interviewed aboard the Navy frigate Hawes, where he flew by helicopter hours after arriving. He said the Iran Ajr, which the Navy attacked and disabled Monday, will be “destroyed in the most effective way possible.”

“It certainly will not be handed back so that it can engage in further activities,” the Pentagon chief said.

Naval sources on the amphibious assault ship Guadalcanal told a reporter that the Iran Ajr, under tow by the frigate Jarrett, has been wired with explosives and will be sunk before dawn Saturday.

‘They’ll See It’

Weinberger, asked whether the Iranian government would be told of the sinking, said, “They’ll see it when she goes up, or down, I should say.”

Five Iranians were killed in the attack and 26 others taken into U.S. custody afterward. The survivors are to be returned to Iran on Saturday.

Weinberger said several mines were found in the area, which is in international waters. He said the United States will destroy any more such vessels it discovers.

Iran has denied that the ship was laying mines.

Iran’s official news agency, monitored in Cyprus, said the Iranian president returned home today from the United Nations and told reporters in Tehran that the U.S. attack on the Iran Ajr will increase Iranians’ “rigor toward the United States.”

U.S. warships began in July to escort 11 reflagged Kuwaiti tankers to protect them from Iran, which considers Kuwait an ally of Iraq.

Iraq Claims Raid

The official Iraqi News Agency, also monitored in Cyprus, said Iraqi jet fighters hit a “large maritime target,” military parlance for a ship.

The report did not name the vessel or give a precise location for the attack in the Persian Gulf. Marine executives in the region had no immediate confirmation of the raid.

Today’s shelling of Basra, reported by Iraq’s state radio, could not be independently confirmed. Iran denied an earlier Iraqi report that its artillery had shelled Basra on Thursday and killed 12 civilians.

On Thursday, the Iraqi News Agency said Iraqi warplanes flew 96 combat missions over Iran and raided two power stations at unspecified locations deep inside Iran.

Diplomats in the gulf and Western military analysts have predicted that the 7-year-old war will escalate in the coming weeks. They said Iraq has stepped up its air war and at the same time is bracing for another Iranian offensive.

Western military analysts have reported signs of an Iranian buildup in the southern sector of the 730-mile battlefront over the past few days, and sources say the Iranians have also increased weapons purchases in recent months.