Curiosity May Have Led Ship Into Trouble

The Iranian missile that hit an American-flagged Kuwaiti tanker last week apparently struck the ship after the captain steered it on an unexpected excursion toward another damaged tanker, Kuwaiti officials and Western diplomats said Friday.

The officials said the Sea Isle City, the American-flagged tanker, slipped its moorings off the Kuwaiti coast last Friday morning and moved several miles so that the crew could inspect the U.S.-owned, Liberian-registered supertanker Sungari, which had been hit by an Iranian Silkworm missile Thursday.

“The Sea Isle City wasn’t supposed to be anywhere in the area,” a senior Kuwaiti official said. “It’s a case of curiosity killing the cat.”

He said damage to the Sea Isle City was more than $2 million.

Officials said the second Silkworm initially appeared to be streaking for the Sungari, but was seen by the crew to veer off course toward the Sea Isle City, which was empty of oil, riding high in the water and presenting a larger “radar shadow” to the missile.

Eighteen men on board the ship were wounded, including the American captain, John Hunt, who was blinded when the windows of the bridge shattered. One British crewmen was found with the camera he was using to photograph the Sungari melted in his hands.

The incident prompted the U.S. government to retaliate by bombarding an oil platform that the Iranian used as a military command post, and to destroy radar and communications equipment on another Iranian platform.

Another Silkworm missile hit the main Kuwaiti offshore oil terminal at Al Ahmadi on Thursday, apparently because there were no ships in the area to present an alternative target.

Iran Almost Admits Attack

Iran did not officially acknowledge responsibility for the attack, but left no doubt that the missile strike was in retaliation for the attack on the Iranian platform.

Western diplomats here believe the Iranians may have been trying to send the United States a double-edged message by aiming missiles at the area when no American ships were present.

“The Iranians had to hit back, but they don’t want a confrontation with the United States,” said one diplomat. “But now you can really expect them to step up their attacks on Kuwait.”

In Tehran on Friday, Iran’s Parliament Speaker, Hashemi Rafsanjani, indicated Iran’s willingness to break the cycle of retaliatory strikes in his speech to the weekly prayer session at Tehran University.

“Although you have not been able to prove the missiles which destroy your interests are fired by Iran, we now say: declare your neutrality and we will consider the matter closed,” Rafsanjani said, referring to United States and gulf Arab states.

“Otherwise,” he said, “the Islamic Republic, relying on God and being in possession of more effective ‘invisible shots,’ will use them if obstinacy continues.”

In an effort to counter the Iranian Silkworms, diplomats believe Kuwait is now hastily moving its batteries of U.S.-supplied Hawk anti-aircraft missiles from coastal positions in the south to Faylakah Island, 10 miles off the Kuwaiti coast.