Iraq Reports Air Raid on Iran Oil Refinery

Iraqi warplanes Friday fired missiles into an oil refinery in northern Iran, igniting a raging fire, the official Iraqi News Agency said.

The strike came as Syria pressed efforts to mediate in the lengthy Iran-Iraq War. Syrian Vice President Abdel-Halim Khaddam met with officials in the United Arab Emirates to try to arrange a meeting between Persian Gulf foreign ministers and Iran, diplomatic sources said.

A spokesman for the Iraqi armed forces in Baghdad said the Iraqi warplanes penetrated Iranian air defenses and struck the refinery in the northern province of Tabriz, the news agency reported.

The refinery was “torn apart and set ablaze” by the strike, the state-run news agency said. The report could not be independently confirmed.

Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency said the Iraqi warplanes attacked a civilian area of the province, causing damage but no casualties.

Baghdad said the strike, which followed an Iranian naval bombardment of two Iraqi oil platforms in the Persian Gulf on Wednesday, was aimed at choking the flow of oil used by Tehran to finance its 7-year-old war against Iraq.

But the two countries have re-frained from attacking merchant vessels in the gulf for a week. They began preying on shipping in the waterway in March, 1984, and carried out 34 strikes in December, the highest monthly total.

After a period of concentrated Iranian attacks on Kuwaiti shipping last spring, the United States placed 11 Kuwaiti tankers under U.S. registry and naval protection.

Another Escorted Convoy

The American guided missile frigates Elrod and McClusky shepherded the Kuwaiti tankers Chesapeake City and Middleton through the narrow Strait of Hormuz on Friday, said Maj. Charlie Boyd, spokesman for the U.S. Central Command.

It was the 24th convoy escorted by American vessels through the Persian Gulf since the operation began in July.

In Abu Dhabi, Khaddam met with Crown Prince Sheik Khalifa ibn Zayed and the minister of state for foreign affairs, Rashid Abdullah Nuaimi, according to the Emirates News Agency.

Khaddam arrived in Abu Dhabi from Bahrain on Thursday with Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Shareh. The two have also met with officials in Qatar, Kuwait and Oman.