U.S.-Managed Tanker Hit by Iran, Set Afire

An Iranian frigate early Friday fired on a U.S.-managed tanker laden with Kuwaiti crude oil in the southern Persian Gulf, setting the ship ablaze. No injuries were reported.

An American warship, the frigate Rentz, was 20 miles away and rushed to offer aid, officials in Washington said. However, the fire was put out within 20 minutes, before the Rentz arrived, and the tanker’s cargo was not affected.

The 103,584-ton tanker Grand Wisdom, registered in Panama and managed by Teekay Shipping Co. Ltd., of Long Beach, Calif., came under the frigate’s gunfire while anchored off the United Arab Emirates port of Dubai.

Fire in Engine Room

One 4 1/2-inch, rocket-propelled grenade ignited a fire in the engine room and four others pierced the stern, shipping sources said.

In Washington, Pentagon officials said the attack was launched by a warship of the Iranian navy and not a gunboat manned by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, who have made previous attacks. They said the Panamanian tanker put into Dubai after the attack.

No U.S. retaliation is planned, the officials said, because the tanker was not flying a U.S. flag and does not come under current policy of protecting only vessels flying the American flag.

It was the first Iranian attack on merchant shipping in the volatile Persian Gulf since Oct. 24, when an Iranian gunboat raided the Greek-owned tanker Prosper Venture off the United Arab Emirates.

Lloyd’s of London, the insurance broker, said it was the 126th confirmed strike on shipping this year by Iran or Iraq. The attacks have been evenly divided between the two nations, a Lloyd’s official said.

Also on Friday, waves of Iraqi warplanes bombed the southwestern Iranian province of Khuzestan, killing one civilian and wounding 13 and damaging an industrial installation, Tehran Radio said. It said two children were among the wounded.

An Iraqi war communique, in an apparent reference to the same attack, said warplanes bombed Iran’s main petrochemical complex at Bandar Khomeini and set it afire.