Missiles Fly in 2nd Week of ‘War of Cities’

The “war of the cities” between Iran and Iraq entered its second week Monday with renewed missile attacks by both sides.

Iraq said it fired three missiles Monday morning at Tehran, the Iranian capital, bringing to 41 the number of missiles it has fired into Iran in the last eight days.

The Iranians have reported at least 230 dead and 800 wounded since the attacks on the two capitals were resumed last Monday with an Iraqi attack on a Tehran oil refinery.

The British news agency Reuters reported from Tehran that Japanese businessmen are being evacuated and sent back to Tokyo because of the destruction caused by the Iraqi missiles.

“The missiles were fired to revenge the innocent people killed by Iranian attacks on Baghdad and other Iraqi cities,” an Iraqi military spokesman said in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital.

‘These Inhuman Acts’

The Iranian government, saying it was retaliating for “these inhuman acts,” announced that its military had fired four missiles at Baghdad. Iraqi officials, however, acknowledged only that two missiles had struck the city, detonating in residential areas.

The Iraqis said there were many civilian deaths and casualties, but no exact figures were given. To avoid providing targeting data to the Iranians, the Iraqis do not specify where the missiles fall.

The Iraqi spokesman said that Iran was keeping up its heavy artillery barrage against the southern city of Basra and towns near the frontier.

“A number of civilians were killed or wounded, and many houses, shops and cars were destroyed when Iranian rockets and long-range artillery shells” landed in Basra, the spokesman said. Iraq has given no casualty figures in the conflict.

Attack by Boats Reported

The spokesman also reported that 14 Iranian boats attacked an unused Iraqi oil terminal Monday at the northern end of Persian Gulf and that the boats were repulsed. He said that Iraqi forces sank four of the boats. Iraq has not exported oil through the gulf since the war began in 1980.

An Iraqi Cabinet minister was quoted in Baghdad as saying that Iran had provoked the latest exchange because it was hoping to wreck efforts in the United Nations to bring about a cease-fire.

Reuters quoted Labor Minister Bakr Mahmoud Rassoul as saying that the war of the cities was planned by Iran to pave the way for a new offensive in the war.

A major Iranian land offensive was predicted late last year, but it has failed to materialize. Western diplomats have blamed feuding in the Iranian leadership and lack of military capability for the apparent postponement.