Iranians Shell Key Waterway, Iraq Charges

Iraq today accused Iran of shelling Iraqi military positions near the Shatt al Arab waterway, where the Persian Gulf war broke out nearly eight years ago.

The attacks, if confirmed, will be the first serious fighting reported since both nations agreed Monday at the United Nations to begin a cease-fire Aug. 20 and to open direct talks in Geneva five days later.

The accusation came in a brief statement from the Iraqi Mission to the United Nations. It said the attacks occurred Wednesday and today.

The statement said “the Iranian armed forces bombarded Iraqi military positions” around Basra and the Faw Peninsula with howitzers, mortars and small missiles. The brief report to the United Nations did not denounce Iran.

The statement also did not say whether Iraq suffered casualties.

Pledges of Restraint

U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar, who had no immediate comment on the statement, scheduled a meeting with Iraqi Ambassador Ismat Kittani at the ambassador’s request, presumably to discuss the situation.

When Perez de Cuellar announced the cease-fire date, Iran gave him a letter pledging that it would not launch any attacks before Aug. 20.

Iraq did not submit a similar letter, but the U.N. leader said Tuesday that he had received oral assurances from both nations that they would exercise restraint.

The main attack on Basra involved 214 howitzer shells, 205 mortar rounds and 32 small missiles, the Iraqi statement said. The Faw bombardment involved 26 howitzer shells, 32 mortar rounds and 16 small missiles, it added.

Both targets are near Shatt al Arab, the disputed waterway that forms the southern border between Iran and Iraq. It is the only sea outlet Iraq has and it has been blocked by Iran since early in the war. Iraq invaded Iran in 1980 after border skirmishes in a bid to gain complete control of the waterway.

Iranian Complaint

Today’s Iraqi statement also said without elaborating that an Iranian tank fired two missiles at Iraqi positions in the “northern sector” of the border.

On Wednesday, Iran’s U.N. ambassador, Mohammed Jaafar Mahallati, complained to Perez de Cuellar that Iraqi warplanes had buzzed Iranian cities and warned that more such flights could jeopardize the proposed truce.

In Tehran on Wednesday, Iran’s acting commander in chief, Hashemi Rafsanjani, said a U.N. inquiry must condemn Iraq as the aggressor in the war or the region will face grave consequences.