Tanker Explodes and Burns; 2 Missing : Persian Gulf: The other 23 crew members abandon the U.S.-flag Kuwaiti ship and are rescued. The blast is believed to have been internal.

A U.S.-flag Kuwaiti tanker loaded with naphtha and diesel fuel exploded Thursday in the Persian Gulf, and two American ship officers were believed killed.

The other 23 crew members, all Americans but one, abandoned the burning ship and were rescued by a U.S. Navy frigate.

American military sources said the two men missing, and evidently killed, were the captain and first mate of the 81,283-ton Surf City, but further identification would have to come from the owners, the Kuwait Oil Tanker Co.

Capt. Ron Wildermuth, chief spokesman for U.S. Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Fla., said there were no reports of mines left over from the Iran-Iraq War in the area, and “initial reports indicate the explosion was internal.”

The Surf City exploded 20 miles off the United Arab Emirates, U.S. officials and shipping sources in the gulf said.

“It was a huge explosion; the ship just blew up,” said Wayne Cohen, 27, of Boston, who was standing watch on the bridge.

He and crewman Earl Washington, from Louisiana, were cut by flying glass when the pilothouse windows shattered, Cohen said.

“There was some panic,” he said in a telephone interview. “We made our way to the lifeboat.”

Both were among survivors picked up by the missile frigate Simpson, and were taken to a hospital in Dubai.

Cohen, a crew member since September, said he looked back as the lifeboat reached the Simpson and saw “nothing but fire and smoke.”

Late in the day, the tanker was reported still burning and taking on water. Wildermuth said U.S. warships and other craft in the area were “standing off” in case of another explosion in the highly volatile cargo.

The Surf City was among 11 Kuwaiti tankers given U.S. flags in 1987 so the Navy could protect them from Iran, which had made Kuwait’s merchant fleet a target because it supported Iraq in the war.

In 1987-88, the Surf City made dozens of trips unscathed under U.S. escort. No armed attacks or minings have been reported in the gulf since Iran and Iraq agreed to a cease-fire in August, 1988.

Thursday’s explosion occurred as the Surf City was sailing out of the gulf through one of its busiest shipping lanes, between the United Arab Emirates and Abu Musa, an Iranian island.

Cohen said some work was being done on one of the ship’s starboard cargo tanks, about midway down the 700-foot deck. He said the missing men were in the area of the explosion.