Iraq Bombs 6 Cities in Iran; Tehran Blacked Out

Iraq said its warplanes bombed six Iranian cities Wednesday, and reports of Iraqi bombers over Tehran prompted a blackout of the capital during a nationwide speech by Iran’s Islamic fundamentalist leader, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Shipping sources reported that Iraqi jets attacked Iran’s Kharg Island oil port in the Persian Gulf, blowing up the Iranian supply ship Bargir and killing six crew members.

The sources said that none of the Kharg Island installations were damaged and that loading at the port was normal. Diplomats in Baghdad said a big explosion at Kharg on Tuesday killed 12 people and destroyed a storage tank.

Neither Iran nor Iraq mentioned any new ground fighting north of the Iraqi city of Basra, where the Iranians launched a major offensive March 11. Iraq reported Monday that the invasion was crushed, and Iraqi military communiques Wednesday said Iranian casualties totaled 27,200 during the battle in the marshland.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Edward P. Djerejian said it appeared “that the Iraqis have blunted and to a large extent rolled back the latest Iranian offensive. Casualty figures on both sides will probably never be known, but apparently are large and once again remind us of the terrible cost of this tragic war.”

Military sources at embassies in Bahrain said their study of the conflicting battle communiques issued by Iran and Iraq combined with intelligence reports indicated that Iraq had defeated the Iranian thrust. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, put Iranian losses at about 14,000 killed and twice as many wounded.

An Iraqi air blockade on commercial aviation in Iranian airspace continued in effect, and Tehran airport was reported almost at a standstill. Iran vowed to reduce the Iraqi capital of Baghdad to a “pile of rubble” if the Iraqis carried out a threat to shoot down civilian airliners flying over Iran.

Hundreds of foreigners were evacuated from Tehran on Tuesday, and most airlines have halted flights to the Iranian capital. Airline officials in Dubai on the Persian Gulf said Iran Airlines is still flying but that flights have been restricted to daylight hours.

Air France said Wednesday that it has canceled its scheduled flight today to Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, and that decisions will be made later regarding Saturday flights to both Baghdad and Tehran.

Baghdad had announced Sunday that beginning Tuesday night, “any target that passes through Iranian airspace will become a possible target.”

According to Iranian news media reports Wednesday, Prime Minister Hussein Mouassavi called the Iraqi threat “insane.” He warned that Iranian missiles would destroy Baghdad’s airport and said the Iraqi capital would be turned into “a pile of rubble for its rulers” if Iraq attacked civilian aircraft.

The Iraqi military command said its aircraft raided “selected targets” Wednesday in Esfahan, Kermanshah, Bushehr, Tabriz, Hamadan and Dezful.

It gave no report of damage or casualties beyond saying the planes inflicted “accurate hits.”

Iran’s official news agency said that Khomeini’s speech, during which the capital was blacked out because of the reports of Iraqi planes overhead, marked the beginning of the Iranian new year. It quoted Khomeini as saying the war will continue “unless the international community accepts Iran’s right to punish the aggressor.”

The speech followed a week of heavy fighting on the ground and increased air and missile attacks by both sides in the war, which started in September, 1980.