Air Battles Cast Cloud on Cease-Fire : Bloody Prelude to Final Truce Feared in Iran-Iraq Raids

Iranian and Iraqi warplanes roared into battle over the Persian Gulf today and each side reported enemy raids only 24 hours after Tehran accepted a U.N. plan for ending the 8-year-old war.

The reports of battles and renewed charges of aggression rapidly fueled fears that a countdown to truce could be bloody and may hinder U.N. peace efforts in a final struggle for advantage.

Iran accused Baghdad of pressing home “barbaric attacks” in southern Iran, and said it had shot down three Iraqi jets returning to base.

Iraq reported Iranian planes being sent to bomb residential areas in the northern oil city of Kirkuk and said one was hit and destroyed by anti-aircraft gunners.

Another Iranian plane went down in flames after a dogfight over the northern gulf, a Baghdad military spokesman said.

The reports of battle and familiar gulf war rhetoric filled the vacuum between Tehran’s announcement of a cease-fire and its implementation, which U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar said he hoped could occur within 10 days.

Attack Assailed

“Today’s bombing of a nuclear plant in Bushehr and a petrochemical complex in Bandar Emam, both in southern Iran, by Iraqi warplanes, once again unveiled the aggressive and warmongering nature of the Ba’athist regime ruling in Iraq,” the Iranian news agency IRNA said.

Baghdad reported all its planes returned safely to base while Iran said it shot three down, and Iran denied it lost a fighter plane and said all its aircraft made base.

More people died today, Iran said, in the war which has already killed an estimated 1 million people.

The new battles raised concern over prospects for peace, and diplomats in the gulf region said years of enmity were likely to resurface when U.N. negotiators try to finalize truce details.

Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak said he hopes Iran’s move is not just a maneuver. Mubarak, whose country is a staunch backer of Iraq, said: “Our people in the Middle East and the gulf have enough of war and fighting, destruction and consumption of resources.”

But one diplomat in the gulf forecast fighting right up to the signing of an official cease-fire. “Don’t expect Iraq to stop its raids until a cease-fire is well and truly wrapped up,” he said.

Shultz Sounds Caution

A similar note of caution came from U.S. Secretary of State George P. Shultz over the presence of 27 American warships in the gulf region to protect shipping from attack.

“We’ll be there as long as it takes to serve the peaceful and proper mission that we undertook,” he told a news conference in Tokyo.

Iran’s military leader Hashemi Rafsanjani appears to have linked a U.S. forces pullout to progress on the implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 598, ordering the cease-fire.

Quoted by IRNA, Rafsanjani said putting the resolution into effect means U.S. forces must leave because they would have no right any more to stay in the gulf.

In Moscow, the Soviet Union said today it is pleased that Iran has accepted the U.N. call for a cease-fire and hopes it will lead to an end to the conflict.