Iraq Deals Death at Sea

By John Kohan

New attacks come amid talk of a terrible battle

For 14 days all had been quiet in the Persian Gulf. But hopes that the brief lull in the 46-month war might continue indefinitely were shattered last week when Iraq attacked two more oil tankers near the major Iranian oil depot at Kharg Island. On land, tensions grew as Iran continued to add new recruits to an army massed along the border with Iraq that may already be half a million strong. To stress the imminence of the long-expected land offensive, Iranian President Seyyed Ali Khamenei said, "The soldiers of Islam are poised for attack, awaiting instructions on where to launch it." Declared U.S. Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger: "I think that one of the most terrible infantry battles since World War I may take place fairly soon."

The Iranian assault could come as early as this week. The armed forces are reported to be on "yellow alert," one step below going into action. The phrase "after Ramadan" has also been heard repeatedly at Iranian military headquarters, suggesting that the offensive would begin after the Muslim holy month, which concluded at week's end. If the Iranians delay too long, the July hot season will turn the battlefield into an inferno. U.S. intelligence has already detected an increase in troop movements and what appears to have been practice attacks along the southern end of the front. Said a U.S. official in Washington: "We see every sign that the offensive is about to be launched."

The Iraqi air attacks claimed the lives of eight sailors, the highest death toll since Iranian and Iraqi warplanes began attacking gulf tankers 14 weeks ago. The first vessel to come under Iraqi fire was the 330,869-ton Greek supertanker Alexander the Great. An Exocet missile from a fighter jet hit the ship, but missed the control center. The explosion set a cargo tank ablaze, but no one was killed. Three days later, the Swiss-managed tanker Tiburon was not so lucky. An Iraqi Exocet scored a direct hit on the 260,158-ton vessel's engine room, killing the eight crewmen. At week's end the burning tanker was being towed out of Iranian waters.

Equally ominous were the reports that Iraqi pilots had hit targets on Kharg Island. The southernmost loading facility in the massive Iranian terminal and a helicopter landing pad were believed to have been damaged in the raid. Officials in Tehran took great pains to explain that the oil depot was still in operation, but they announced that tankers would not be able to berth at the island "due to bad weather." The next day, the port was apparently reopened. In a meeting of the Iranian Cabinet, Prime Minister Mir Hossein Moussavi warned that Iran would "deliver a blow for every blow we receive." Parliamentary Leader Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani made the threat more explicit: "If one of our ships is hit, a ship of the same size belonging to others should also be hit."

Advanced weapons, like the Exocet missiles used in last week's air attacks, have begun to shift the balance in the gulf war in Iraq's favor. In contrast, Iran has an increasingly serious supply problem at its front lines. Unlike the well-armed Iraqi forces, the Iranian army is desperately in need of tanks, ammunition, spare parts, even gas masks. Iran is also running low on morale. As war heroes' graves have grown ever more numerous in Iranian towns and villages, some supporters of the Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini no longer display the same fervor for the holy war against Iraq. Stories have appeared in the press stressing the penalties facing draft dodgers. Convoys of trucks, however, still carry young and inexperienced volunteers to the front. No cost seems too high in a war that has already squandered so many human lives. -- By John Kohan. Reported by Barry Hillenbrand/Bahrain

With reporting by Barry Hillenbrand