U.S. Helicopters Sink 3 Iranian Patrol Boats : Craft in Gulf Fired First, Navy Reports

U.S. military helicopters sank three Iranian patrol boats in the northern Persian Gulf after the Iranian boats fired on an unarmed U.S. Navy observation helicopter, Pentagon officials reported Thursday.

There were no U.S. casualties and no damage to U.S. helicopters, the officials said. A U.S. patrol boat picked up six Iranian survivors of the attack, three of whom were reported in serious condition. The Pentagon gave no estimate of the number of Iranians killed in the clash.

The attack occurred at 9:50 p.m. local time (11:50 a.m. PDT) and apparently lasted only a few minutes, according to the officials. It took place in international waters about 15 miles southwest of Iran’s Farsi Island.

The incident was the second in three weeks in which U.S. forces have fired on Iranian boats in the gulf, and it was the first time that Iranian forces have fired on Americans.

On Sept. 21, American helicopter gunships disabled an Iranian amphibious ship, the Iran Ajr, after it was observed laying mines off the island of Bahrain, near an anchorage for U.S. warships.

Five Iranians were killed and 26 were captured in the Iran Ajr incident. The Iranians were later returned to Iran, and the Navy scuttled the ship.

In Thursday’s action, three or four Iranian patrol boats apparently opened fire on a U.S. Navy observation helicopter that was on “routine patrol” in the vicinity of Farsi Island, Pentagon spokesman Fred Hoffman said in a briefing.

Radioed for Help

The Navy crew radioed for help from escort helicopter gunships, U.S. Army Special Operations Command MH-6 attack helicopters, which were nearby. They responded in minutes, Hoffman said, and fired on the Iranian boats with machine guns and rockets.

Three Iranian boats were sunk, including a 42-foot patrol boat built by the Boghammar boat works in Sweden and bought by Iran in 1983 for the Iranian customs service. The boat, capable of traveling at more than 50 m.p.h., had been converted to military use and equipped with machine guns, Pentagon sources said.

A fourth Iranian boat apparently escaped in the darkness, Hoffman said.

“The firing on the U.S. helicopter was clearly a hostile act,” the Pentagon official said. “The helicopter crews fired in self-defense.”

President Reagan was informed of the incident by Lt. Gen. Colin L. Powell of the National Security Council staff. Powell went to the Oval Office to brief Reagan about 40 minutes after the incident, presidential spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said.

“It appears it was an isolated incident,” Fitzwater said. “We did not provoke the incident in any way. Our helicopters acted in self-defense because they were fired upon.”

“We have said all along that we are not looking for a fight. We will stay in international waters, but if hostile fire comes our way we will respond,” a State Department official added.

The United States has 11 warships inside the gulf and about two dozen more nearby in the Gulf of Oman. The Reagan Administration dispatched the flotilla this summer to protect 11 Kuwaiti oil tankers, re-registered as American vessels, from Iranian and Iraqi attacks and to ensure freedom of navigation in the gulf.

Allowed to Fire Back

U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf are operating under rules of engagement that allow them to fire in response to any hostile act without approval from higher military authority. The Pentagon would not disclose whether the gunship crews sought approval to shoot, saying only that their action was “within the rules of engagement.”

The Iranian survivors of the attack were picked up by a U.S. Navy Mark III patrol boat, which took them to the frigate Thach stationed nearby, Hoffman said. As for other casualties, “we have no idea how many men were aboard the three craft which were sunk,” he said.

Western military officials in the gulf said that U.S. naval ships had begun a search for the fourth Iranian boat.

While the Pentagon did not say where the Iranian boats were based, it is believed that they were dispatched from Farsi Island, a naval base operated by Iranian Revolutionary Guards in the gulf about halfway between Saudi Arabia and the Iranian mainland.

Probably From Farsi Island

U.S. officials believe that it was from Farsi Island that the Iranians laid the mine that blew a hole in the Kuwaiti supertanker Bridgeton in July, an incident that many regard as the first volley in the increasingly violent confrontation between Iran and the United States.

Last Saturday, the Iranians sent a small flotilla of gunboats toward the Saudi Arabian oil loading facility of Ras al Khafji, 30 miles off the Saudi coast.

The gunboats turned back after U.S. warships moved to intercept them and the Saudi air force scrambled jet fighters. However, the Iranians have maintained a substantial number of small boats in the area since last weekend, Pentagon officials said.

In response to the action in the gulf, the Senate scheduled a vote today on a proposal to invoke the provision of the 1973 War Powers Resolution, which requires American troops to be withdrawn from an area of hostilities within 90 days unless Congress votes otherwise.

Motion Likely to Fail

But Sen. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. (R-Conn.), author of the initiative, conceded that his motion likely will fail or be stymied by a filibuster. Many Democrats as well as Republicans believe that the provisions of the War Powers Resolution are too severe for the current situation.

Speaking for the Senate Republican leadership, Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.) acknowledged that the controversial War Powers Resolution probably applies in the gulf. But to invoke it, he argued, would draw Congress into “a Byzantine thicket of quicksand.”

The Administration contends that the War Powers Resolution is unconstitutional and does not apply in the gulf. When asked whether the Administration still believes that it is not in danger of hostilities with Iran, Hoffman replied, “Yes, sir.”

Late Thursday, the Pentagon disclosed that a second, unrelated incident had occurred in the southern Persian Gulf. The Pentagon said in a statement that a U.S. helicopter flying from the frigate Ford “reported shots fired from an Iranian oil rig . . . about 120 miles east of Bahrain.”

“The helicopter cleared the area without further incident. It could not be determined whether or not the shots were fired at the helicopter. Accordingly, the U.S. helicopter did not respond by firing,” the statement said.

Times staff writers Charles P. Wallace, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Sara Fritz, in Washington, contributed to this story.