Confrontation in the Persian Gulf : U.S. Joined in Iraqi Attack, Iran Charges

Iran charged Monday that U.S. helicopters attacked Iranian troops in support of an Iraqi offensive that reportedly has recaptured the Faw Peninsula in southern Iraq. U.S. officials immediately denied the charge.

The Iranian claim was made hours after U.S. warships destroyed two Iranian oil platforms in the Persian Gulf.

Pentagon spokesman Fred Hoffman dismissed the Iranian report as totally without foundation, saying that no U.S. military forces have been involved with Iraqi units.

Tehran Radio, monitored in Nicosia, quoted a statement from Iran’s Supreme Defense Council as saying: “In direct, open and practical support for the Iraqi regime, American forces have entered the war.”

The council, which determines Iran’s war strategy, called on all Iranians to join the military and brace for a “holy defense” of their country.

The statement was issued after Iraq reported that its troops, led by units of the elite Presidential Guard, have recaptured Faw. Iran, which seized the peninsula two years ago, denied that Iraq has retaken it.

Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency claimed that “in an open confession of their dirty ganging-up, U.S. and Iraqi forces using Kuwaiti facilities attacked Iranian positions in the Faw region, southern Iraq,” on Monday.

It claimed U.S. helicopter gunships “suddenly appeared on the battle scene from the sea side and attacked Iranian combatants.” The agency claimed Iranian Revolutionary Guards immediately opened fire on the U.S. helicopters, forcing them to “hastily drop their rockets and flee the scene.”

Iran Says It Routed Attackers

The news agency also reiterated claims that Iranian Revolutionary Guards had “routed” the offensive when it was launched Saturday night, and it repeated accusations that Iraq used chemical weapons against Iranian defenders in the Faw region.

In Baghdad, the official Iraqi News Agency reported that thousands of Iranians were killed or wounded in the two-day-old offensive, code-named “Blessed Ramadan” after the Muslim fasting month.

It was the first time Iraq had taken the initiative in a major ground offensive since the early years of the 7 1/2-year-old war.

“Victorious Iraqi armed forces entered Faw town (Al Faw) today and hoisted the Iraqi flag,” the state-run agency reported Monday in an urgent dispatch.

A war communique read over state-run television said Iranian occupying forces were driven out of the peninsula.

Thousands of men, women and children celebrated the victory in the streets of Baghdad and other major Iraqi cities, witnesses said.

“Kill the Iranian dogs!” men shouted as they emptied their machine guns from rooftops.

Schoolgirls waving Iraqi flags and carrying portraits of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein chanted “Death to (Ayatollah Ruhollah) Khomeini!” and “Sweet revenge!”

Only Town Recaptured

The Iraqi agency said that troops of the 7th Army Corps, backed by elite Presidential Guards, took the “Faw triangle,” the bulk of the peninsula that juts out into the Persian Gulf and straddles Iraq’s only sea outlet. It later reported the seizure of Al Faw, the only town on the peninsula.

The Iraqi accounts said the bulk of the Iranian forces in the peninsula were destroyed, but they did not claim that the entire peninsula was retaken. They said Iraqi forces continued their advance.

The Faw Peninsula, about 50 miles southeast of Iraq’s major port city of Basra, was seized by Iran in a major offensive in February, 1986.

Iran eventually retained about 120 square miles of the peninsula, using its new positions to shell Iraq’s main air base near Basra.

It also reportedly used the peninsula to launch Chinese-made Silkworm missiles at Kuwaiti ships and oil facilities.

Western diplomats said Iraq’s liberation of the peninsula could mean that several Silkworm missile launching pads in the area were overrun.