Iraq Hits 3 Tankers in Gulf Raids : Vows to Step Up Attacks Until Iran Accepts Cease-Fire

Iraq stepped up its air strikes against shipping in the Persian Gulf on Sunday, attacking three oil tankers off the Iranian coast in one of the most intensive series of raids since the so-called tanker war began four years ago.

The new attacks, which followed two others on Saturday, came as Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger wound up a weekend tour of the region to visit with U.S. forces and to discuss military cooperation with the leaders of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

The Iraqis accompanied their latest attacks on ships servicing Iran with a warning that the tanker war will be further intensified unless Tehran accepts a cease-fire as called for by the U.N. Security Council on July 20.

‘All-Out War’ Threatened

“The Tehran regime has one of two choices--either a comprehensive peace or all-out war,” Al Thawra, the official newspaper of Iraq’s ruling Arab Baath Socialist Party, said in an editorial Sunday.

Gulf shipping sources reported Iraqi attacks Sunday on an Iranian shuttle tanker, a Liberian bulk oil carrier and on a Cypriot ship hit twice in two days--the second time as it was being towed to an Iranian port in the northern gulf.

The Cypriot shuttle tanker--the 225,682-ton Coral Cape--was set on fire, but the blaze was later extinguished and no casualties were reported, the sources said.

The Liberian-flagged vessel, the 15,000-ton Marlin, was attacked by Iraqi jets near Iran’s major offshore oil loading facility at Kharg Island early Sunday. According to Lloyd’s Shipping Intelligence, the Marlin’s owner of record is Alcoa Steamship Co., whose registered offices are in New York.

Also Near Kharg Island

The Iranian shuttle tanker, the 69,360-ton Shirvan, was also hit near Kharg Island.

Iraq has tentatively accepted the United Nations’ call for a cease-fire, but Iran said it will do so only if Iraq is denounced by the international community for starting the gulf war seven years ago this month.

Although still unacceptable to Iraq, the Iranian position--outlined during a visit to the region earlier this month by U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar--aroused interest among diplomats who noted that it seemed to represent a softening of Tehran’s previous demands for the overthrow of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

However, the powerful Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, Hashemi Rafsanjani, appeared to dash any hope that Iran has moderated its position when he told Tehran radio Sunday that Iran remains “firm in its resolve not to halt its holy war until the Iraqi people are delivered from Saddam (Hussein).”

Plans by Weinberger to hold a news conference were vetoed by Bahraini officials, who wanted to keep the secretary’s visit as low-key as possible.

Military Cooperation

However, in an interview from the gulf on ABC-TV’s “This Week With David Brinkley,” Weinberger praised the “excellent” military cooperation that he said U.S. forces in the region are quietly receiving from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and other Arab gulf states.

Saudi Arabia has refused to allow the United States to base fighter aircraft on its soil but is understood to have discreetly extended landing facilities to carrier-based U.S. aircraft in the gulf under an informal and highly secretive arrangement.

Weinberger, who conferred on Saturday with King Fahd and other senior Saudi officials, said he was “completely satisfied with their level of response.” But he added: “The less we talk about it, the more we get. So I’m not going to talk about it.”

Weinberger, who was to leave for Egypt today, also denounced Iran as an “outlaw nation” governed by fanatics and said U.S. forces must remain in the gulf to safeguard international shipping from Iranian attempts to disrupt it.

The secretary did not extend his criticism to Iraq, whose sudden escalation of the tanker war--which it started in 1983--coincided with Weinberger’s visit.

Tehran radio also carried comments Sunday from some of the 26 Iranian survivors of the Iran Ajr, the Iranian naval vessel attacked by U.S. helicopters last Monday as it was laying mines in a gulf sea lane off Bahrain. The Iran Ajr later was sunk after its capture by U.S. forces.

The crewmen, along with the bodies of three sailors killed in the attack, were turned over to Iranian officials in Oman on Saturday and flown home to Iran.

‘Enslavement’ Charged

The radio quoted one crewman as saying that during their five days of confinement, at first aboard the U.S. command ship La Salle and later aboard the amphibious transport ship Raleigh, the Iranians were “enslaved” by their captors and subjected to “savage imprisonment” in sweltering quarters below decks.

The radio quoted another crewman as saying U.S. officials aboard the La Salle suggested to the Iranians that they apply for political asylum. “They did this because they wanted to exploit us for propaganda purposes, but we refused,” the crewman said.

This version of events appeared to be Iran’s way of addressing reports that some of the sailors, before being handed back, may have sought asylum--an issue that had become a focus of speculation and controversy over the past few days.

Unconfirmed reports, originating with sailors aboard the U.S. gulf fleet, began circulating in Bahrain that at least two of the Iranians had requested that they not be repatriated to Iran.

While State Department spokesmen in Washington denied this, a controversy erupted over remarks made to reporters on Saturday by the American ambassador to Bahrain, Sam H. Zakhem.

Only Speculation

Zakhem said he believed that some of the Iranians wanted to defect but were denied the opportunity to do so. Later, by way of clarifying these remarks, the ambassador said that this was a speculative conclusion on his part and that he did not know of any actual instance of an Iranian requesting asylum.

However, Zakhem, who is a Reagan Administration political appointee, added that he had opposed the decision to repatriate the Iranians, arguing with the State Department that they should be kept as a bargaining lever to gain the release of American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon.

Most newspapers, including The Times, did not report these remarks in detail at the time because they were made on an “off-the-record” basis.