Iraq Claims New Kharg Island Raid in Bid to Impede Repairs

MANAMA, Bahrain â€”  Iraq said its warplanes dropped a dozen 1,100-pound bombs on Iran’s Kharg Island oil export terminal Friday to impede repairs on jetties hit in two previous raids.

An Iraqi military spokesman said in Baghdad that the bombs hit oil-loading facilities at the huge Persian Gulf terminal, which handles most of the oil exports that finance Iran’s effort in the 5-year-old war with Iraq.

Marine salvage executives could not confirm the Iraqi claim, the third raid it has reported in two weeks on the heavily guarded terminal in the gulf’s northeastern sector.

The military spokesman said in a communique distributed by the official Iraqi News Agency that the air force “dealt Kharg one more devastating blow.� He said the object was to obstruct repair work on the loading jetties damaged in raids on Aug. 15 and 25. Iraq’s high command claimed after the first raid that the gulf terminal was turned into “smoldering wreckage.�

Earlier Damage

Shipping sources in the region reported that the earlier raids caused considerable damage to one jetty and minor damage to a second. They said surface pipelines and the control room, which measures how much crude oil is pumped into loading tankers, were also damaged.

However, the Middle East Economic Survey, based in Nicosia, Cyprus, reported after those raids that Kharg’s oil-loading activities were “proceeding at normal levels.�

The Iraqis have threatened to choke Iran’s economy by blocking its oil exports.

In February, 1984, Iraq declared a 50-mile radius around Kharg off limits to commercial shipping. In what has become known as the “tanker war,� Iraqi warplanes have raided tankers and bulk carriers within and near the zone, and Iran has retaliated by attacking vessels in international waters in the gulf’s southeastern sector.