Iranian Gunboat Attacks Gulf Ship; Iraq Hits Platform

A lone Iranian gunboat attacked a Romanian cargo ship in the northern Persian Gulf on Thursday, the first such attack on shipping since a U.S. warship shot down an Iranian airliner last Sunday killing 290 people, shipping officials said.

They said the captain of the 8,750-ton vessel Plataresti was injured in the attack near Iran’s Farsi Island.

Lloyd’s Shipping Intelligence Unit said the Plataresti was heading for Kuwait with a cargo of timber when hit. It said the cargo ship was proceeding to port under its own power.

Meanwhile, Iraqi bomber squadrons on Thursday hit Iranian oil installations in the Persian Gulf, setting them ablaze in Iraq’s second such attack in the past 24 hours, an Iraqi military spokesman said in Baghdad.

The spokesman said the bombers attacked the Imam Hassan oil pumping station at 11 a.m. Thursday and six minutes later pounded the Goreh oil field 43 miles northeast of Iran’s main oil terminal at Kharg Island.

The Imam Hassan oil field has come under Iraqi attack several times during the nearly 8-year-old war as part of Iraq’s efforts to dry up oil revenues that fuel Iran’s war machine.