Iranian Planes Attack Exiles’ Base Inside Iraq

Iranian warplanes bombed an Iranian rebel base near Baghdad on Sunday, the first air strike by Iran on Iraqi territory since a 1988 cease-fire halted their eight-year war.

Iraq said its forces shot down one of eight Iranian F-4 fighter-bombers and captured the two-man crew. State-run Baghdad Radio, monitored in Cyprus, called the raid an act of “blatant and unjustified aggression” and warned Iran of “grave consequences.”

Supporters of the Iranian rebels in the United States, Canada and Europe responded by attacking the Tehran government’s diplomatic missions.

The air raid marked a sharp deterioration in relations between Iran and Iraq, which have not signed a peace treaty to formally end their 1980-88 war and have been waging increasingly strident propaganda campaigns against each other.

Tehran said the air strike was in retaliation for a raid by guerrillas of Moujahedeen Khalq, or People’s Holy Warriors, on two villages in western Iran on Saturday.

The Moujahedeen, the largest exile Iranian opposition force, said one of its fighters was killed and several others wounded when its Ashraf Base near Khalis, 30 miles inside Iraq and 40 miles from Baghdad, was attacked Sunday morning. The exile group denied attacking the Iranian villages.

Ali Reza Jafarazadeh, a Moujahedeen spokesman in Baghdad, said: “The real reason for today’s attack was the tremendous political crisis facing the Tehran regime inside Iran over the parliamentary elections.”

Iraq said that eight U.S.-built F-4 Phantom jets “heavily pounded” the Iranian rebels’ base and that Iraqi troops shot down one warplane and captured the two crewmen.

Officers of the Moujahedeen’s National Liberation Army (NLA) said Iranian F-4 Phantoms and F-5s attacked at 7:20 a.m. in six waves dropping cluster bombs, firing rockets and strafing roads and vehicles.

The Moujahedeen also claimed to have shot down the Iranian plane. “The first two planes dropped two bombs and then flew around the base and came back. We hit them as they dived,” gunner Ali Sharafi said.

The Moujahedeen showed foreign journalists bomb damage at the Ashraf base and the still-burning wreckage of an F-4 Phantom, its wings perforated by bullets.

Baghdad Radio said Iraq’s Foreign Ministry sent a letter of protest to U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

The Moujahedeen issued a statement in France saying that its leader, Massoud Rajavi, also sent a telegram to Boutros-Ghali asking that the U.N. Security Council condemn the attack and embargo oil and arms trade with Iran.

Protesters opposed to the Iranian government briefly seized its U.N. mission in New York on Sunday and took one person hostage, saying they were angry over attacks on the Iranian resistance.

Police arrested five men and said the unidentified hostage was released unharmed. A police source said the protesters “trashed” the mission during the takeover.

In Europe, dozens of Moujahedeen supporters hurled firebombs, bricks and rocks at Iranian diplomatic offices in Germany, Sweden, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland.