The World - News from April 27, 1988

U.S. warships shepherded two re-flagged Kuwaiti tankers through the Strait of Hormuz into the Persian Gulf, but the convoy later had to turn back because of bad weather, gulf shipping sources said. “Choppy seas make it more difficult to spot mines, and nobody wants to risk sailing into one,” one of the sources said. The first escorted convoy operation since last week’s U.S.-Iranian naval clash reportedly included at least two U.S. warships and a pair of re-flagged Kuwaiti vessels--a gas carrier and a tanker. In Washington, however, a Pentagon spokesman denied that U.S. convoys have resumed, adding, “We don’t comment on future operations.”