Iraqi Planes Attack Kharg Oil Terminal

Iraqi warplanes defied Iranian air defenses and attacked Iran’s main oil terminal in the Persian Gulf on Sunday for the first time in more than three months, Baghdad and shipping officials said.

Iraq’s official news agency, monitored here, called the mid-morning raid on Kharg Island a “new glorious deed” in Iraq’s campaign to destroy Iran’s oil-based economy.

Gulf-based salvage executives said that tugboats in the area reported air raid sirens at 10:30 a.m. They said at least one tanker apparently was damaged while being loaded.

Baghdad said all planes returned safely after penetrating Iranian defenses and blasting the loading piers.

U.S.-Owned Tanker Hit

Meanwhile, Iranian gunboats attacked a U.S.-owned tanker flying the Liberian flag near the Strait of Hormuz, gateway out of the gulf, but they may have broken off the assault prematurely when a foreign warship answered the tanker’s distress call.

Shipping executives identified the target as the 64,140-ton tanker Diane, sailing out of the gulf with a load of Saudi Arabian crude oil. It was attacked about 2:30 a.m. off the emirate of Ras al Khaima.

The attack craft, believed to be the swift Swedish-built Boghammars used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, fired rocket-propelled grenades at the tanker, causing a fire in the engine-room but no casualties, the executives said.

Voyage Resumed

The Diane, owned by the North American Shipping Agencies Inc. of New York, continued on its way after the fire was controlled.

Sources who spoke on condition of anonymity said radio monitors overheard conversation between the Diane and an unidentified foreign warship after the tanker issued a distress call.

They said that it is not clear how close the warship was but that the radio exchange might have induced the Iranians to break off the attack sooner than usual.

The U.S. Navy’s ninth convoy of the year arrived off Kuwait on Sunday, according to an announcement by the U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla. As with most others this year, it included only one reflagged Kuwaiti tanker, the 294,739-ton Townsend.

Sunday’s attack on Kharg Island was the first since Nov. 4. The Kharg offshore complex accounts for 90% of Iranian oil exports. Iraqi jets generally avoid Kharg while concentrating attacks on oil tankers shuttling between Kharg and safer terminals farther south.

Hawk Missile Deterrent

Some gulf shipping experts say tough air defenses at the island, possibly including U.S.-made Hawk missiles secretly supplied in the Iran-Contra arms deal of 1986, may have discouraged the Iraqis. Iran claimed to have shot down four Iraqi jets during one Kharg raid, although Baghdad denied this.

Iran’s attack on the Diane was the fourth attack on neutral shipping in the southern gulf in the last week, under Tehran’s avowed policy of retaliation for Iraqi air raids.

Iran usually concentrates on vessels sailing to or from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, which it accuses of aiding Iraq’s military effort.

Since the two countries went to war in September, 1980, more than 400 ships have been hit by both sides.