U.S. Attacks Iran Frigates, Oil Platforms, Sinks Boat : American Helicopter Is Missing

U.S. warships and aircraft destroyed two of Iran’s Persian Gulf oil platforms today, sank a patrol boat and damaged two Iranian frigates that fired missiles at American planes.

Iranian naval forces responded with attacks on Arab oil facilities, U.S., British and Cypriot commercial vessels and on a press helicopter chartered by NBC.

It was the most intense direct U.S.-Iran conflict since President Reagan ordered last summer that Navy forces be strengthened in the gulf, where Iran and Iraq have been at war since September, 1980.

Later today Defense Secretary Frank C. Carlucci said that a two-man U.S. attack helicopter was missing and “we are concerned.”

Defense Department officials said naval forces were searching for the Cobra chopper, a Marine aircraft that had been stationed aboard the cruiser Wainwright.

Washington called destruction of the oil platforms a “measured response” to the explosion of a mine, allegedly planted by Iran, that blew a hole in an American frigate last week and wounded 10 sailors.

Reagan said today’s operations were a warning to Iran that “we will protect our ships and, if they threaten us, they’ll pay a price. We undertook this action to make sure the Iranians have no illusions about the cost of irresponsible behavior.”

No casualties were reported among U.S. forces. Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency said there were deaths and injuries aboard the platforms but it did not say how many.

Gave Advance Warning

On Reagan’s instructions, about 9 a.m. gulf time, two groups of Navy warships struck the Iranian oil platforms Sassan and Sirri, 100 miles apart in the southern Persian Gulf.

They gave the Iranians advance warning to evacuate the platforms, which have been used as speedboat bases for attacks on neutral shipping. Reagan ordered the attacks as retaliation for the mine that holed the frigate Samuel B. Roberts on Thursday.

Both platforms were destroyed and left ablaze, one by naval gunfire and the other by explosives that were placed on it, according to statements in Washington.

The Iranian news agency said U.S. warships hit the Sassan platform at 9 a.m. and, 23 minutes later, the Sirri platform off nearby Sirri Island.

IRNA said Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati wrote a letter of protest to U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar that said, in part: “Iran will never submit to the policy of violence and intimidation and will definitely respond to the cowardly U.S. attacks.”

Gunboats on Rampage

After the U.S. attacks, Iranian gunboats went on a rampage in the southern gulf. They attacked oil facilities and commercial vessels at the Mubarak oil field off the Sharjah emirate and, hours later, a Cypriot freighter leaving the United Arab Emirates with a load of fertilizer.

Carlucci said a Navy helicopter was fired on during the raid on the platforms but was not hit. Iranians shot at a press helicopter carrying an NBC-TV crew and an Associated Press photographer but missed.

AP photographer Norbert Schiller said the “Iranians fired at least half a dozen .50-caliber rounds and small-arms fire” at the helicopter.

Two Iranian warplanes tried to harass a U.S. warship but the ship fired missiles and the aircraft fled, shipping sources reported.

They said an Iranian patrol boat fired at the Wainwright, one of the ships attacking Sassan and Sirri, but did not hit it. The frigate Simpson returned fire and sank the Iranian boat, the sources added.

In late afternoon, the 310-foot frigate Sahand left the Iranian naval base at Bandar Abbas and confronted three U.S. warships in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow gateway to the gulf.

Ignoring repeated warnings, it fired at three A-6 Intruder aircraft near the aircraft carrier Enterprise and was hit by a Harpoon missile from the destroyer Straus that set the Sahand ablaze, according to Pentagon reports.

Pentagon officials said the Iranian frigate Sabalan fired on an A-6 later and the plane attacked, hitting the ship with a laser-guided bomb.