Allied Frigates Fire Warning at Iraqi Tanker

U.S. and Australian warships fired across the bow of an Iraqi oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman on Friday and then boarded the vessel in an incident that ended a monthlong cease-fire in the sea blockade and raised prospects for new hostilities in the Persian Gulf crisis.

The confrontation came after the Iraq-bound tanker, in a sharp departure after weeks of Iraqi cooperation, ignored repeated demands that it halt and submit to a search, the Pentagon said.

After machine-gun warning shots were fired by the two ships, a joint American and Australian naval party boarded the tanker and found that it was empty. The tanker was permitted to continue toward Iraq in a peaceful end to the four-hour standoff.

It was the first time the United States has turned its naval guns against Iraqi traffic since Aug. 18. Some officials described the incident as a troubling indication that Iraq may have decided to mount a new challenge to the naval blockade.

“We were making a point, and a rather eloquent one,” a Navy official said.

The joint action at sea came as the State Department raised new concern about Iraqi terrorism, warning specifically for the first time that Iraq might use “its own intelligence apparatus to undertake terrorist operations.”

At the same time, the United States accused Iraq of attempting to “create conditions of famine” for foreigners trapped in Iraq and occupied Kuwait. And the White House, despite new pledges of assistance from U.S. allies, asked Congress for $1.9 billion to fund Operation Desert Shield through the end of the month.

White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said the additional spending is necessary even with the new burden-sharing arrangements in order “to fulfill America’s leadership role.”

The clash in the Gulf of Oman late Friday afternoon marked the first time that an Australian or other non-American vessel had fired warning shots since Western warships began to enforce the U.N.-mandated blockade Aug. 17.

Although the incident was the third such shooting by U.S. vessels, it marked only the second time that the United States has boarded an Iraqi vessel during the blockade.

Military officials said they were concerned that the show of defiance by the Iraqi vessel Al-Fao might mark an end to the peaceful period.

The Pentagon said the 800-foot Iraqi tanker, intercepted near the middle of the Gulf of Oman by the U.S. Navy frigate Brewton and the Royal Australian Navy frigate Darwin, reported that it was bound for the Iraqi port of Basra and was carrying no cargo.

But the Pentagon said the Iraqi captain “refused repeated requests to halt.” It also said that the Navy vessel, after “several requests to permit boarding,” fired warning shots from a .50-caliber machine gun at about 4:40 p.m. local time.

About 10 minutes later, according to the brief Pentagon statement, the Australian frigate fired a second round of warning shots, also from a .50-caliber machine gun. The master of the Al-Fao then announced that he was stopping his ship.

A team of U.S. and Australian sailors spent about three hours searching the vessel to determine whether it was carrying goods to Iraq in violation of the economic sanctions. After the “coordinated investigation,” however, the boarding party determined that the ship carried no prohibited cargo.

In the early weeks of the crisis, the Al-Fao had unsuccessfully attempted to dock and load at the terminus of an Iraqi oil pipeline at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea port of Muajjiz.

President Bush, asked about the incident as he left the White House to begin a weekend visit to Camp David, Md., noted that the American vessel was acting “in accordance with the United Nations sanctions” in ordering the ship to “heave to.”

But he noted that the Iraqi ship “did require a bit of a warning before the captain pulled over and permitted the boarding party to have a look.”

Military officials in Washington said they did not know how long the Navy frigate waited before deciding to fire warning shots at the Iraqi vessel. They also said no information was available about the actual number of shots fired, although one source said that “once you open up with a machine gun, it gets difficult to count.”

The officials, however, played down the confrontational nature of the incident. “You’re not going to do any damage to a supertanker with a .50-caliber machine gun,” said a Pentagon spokesman.

The incident came nearly a month after U.S. warships fired warning shots across the bows of two Iraqi oil tankers heading out of the Persian Gulf on Aug. 18. The two vessels ignored the warnings and continued on their way, and the Navy took no further action.

The prospects for another clash appeared to increase later in the month after the United Nations authorized the use of force to maintain the quarantine around Iraq, and the United States made clear that it would halt any vessel that sought to evade the embargo.

But intelligence reports indicated that Iraq ordered its captains not to challenge the Western navies, and apparently only the cargo ship Zanubia, boarded Sept. 4 in the Gulf of Oman, sought to enter an Iraqi port.

That vessel, loaded with tea from Sri Lanka, was diverted to Oman and then released Sept. 5 with a warning not to continue toward Iraq.

The joint operation against the Al-Fao came as the United States won more pledges of support from key allies of troops, tanks, planes, warships and cash for the U.S.-led gulf buildup.

Bush expressed gratitude for what he called a “significant contribution” from Japan, which increased its pledge of assistance from $1 billion to $4 billion. At the same time, the President told reporters that he had given his personal thanks to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher for a new British commitment of 6,000 ground troops with expertise in desert warfare.

The President described the assistance as “icing on the cake” that will be in addition to assistance already provided by Britain--”a significant move by the Brits.”

In asking Congress for $1.9 billion in supplemental funding in the next month, the Administration injected a blunt reminder of the domestic costs of its military operation after days of emphasis on the new commitments by allies.

Senior Administration officials traveling with Secretary of State James A. Baker III had suggested that contributions from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other gulf states would alone be sufficient to cover the entire cost of the operation until the 1990 fiscal year ends Sept. 30.

But a White House official said the Administration had always planned for the United States to shoulder a significant share of the cost, particularly in the initial phases of the operation.

In its new statement on terrorism, the State Department confirmed that its top-ranking officer in Baghdad this week warned the Iraqi government against sponsoring “terrorist” operations.

Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the step was taken in part because of increasing fears that Iraqi intelligence organizations might be used to attack Western interests or mount operations against civilians.

“Our primary source of concern must be that Iraq might use its own intelligence apparatus to undertake terrorist operations,” Boucher told a news briefing in the first official warning about direct Iraqi government involvement in terrorism.

U.S. officials, who demanded anonymity, have said in recent days that intelligence reports indicated that Iraqi diplomats in Europe and the Middle East may be conducting “surveillance” in preparation for possible terrorist attacks.

Times staff writer James Gerstenzang contributed to this report.