9 U.S. Warships Patrolling ‘Everywhere in the Gulf’ : Include Area Iraq Defines as Off Limits

MANAMA, Bahrain —  Nine U.S. Navy ships are cruising the whole Persian Gulf, including the northern off-limits zone declared by Iraq, as they prepare to protect 11 Kuwaiti tankers flying the American flag, shipping officials reported today.

The exclusion area extends 70 miles from Kharg Island, Iran’s main export oil terminal and a regular target of Iraqi air raids in the war that began in September, 1980.

Iran has threatened to attack the American warships, and U.S. officials will not say where they are patrolling. A shipping official based in the area, who like the others spoke anonymously, said: “They’re everywhere in the gulf.”

Lt. Cmdr. Stephen Honda, a Navy spokesman, said only that the warships “operate in the gulf and the Gulf of Oman in international waters.” The fleet is called the Middle East Force and now includes nine vessels.

Stark’s Sister Ship

One U.S. vessel seen inside the exclusion zone, where Iraq’s air force also has concentrated its attacks on tankers, is the missile frigate Reid, sister ship of the U.S. frigate Stark.

An Iraqi warplane hit the Stark with missiles May 17 about 40 miles south of the exclusion zone, killing 37 American sailors.

Iraq apologized, saying the Iraqi pilot mistook the Stark for an Iranian warship.

“We sighted the Reid inside the war zone, and each of us was asking the sailor next to him, ‘Am I seeing things?’ ” said a seaman whose tanker was carrying Iranian oil from Kharg to the Far East.

“We saw the Reid through binoculars and then with the naked eye when it drew closer: an Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided-missile frigate stabbing through the no-go zone,” said the seaman, who spoke on condition his name not be used.

Protecting Oil Shipments

Gulf-based Arab diplomats confirmed that the Reid and other U.S. warships, which they did not identify, had entered the exclusion zone in recent weeks.

They said the American vessels sailed into the area with Iraq’s knowledge under an understanding said to have been reached after the attack on the Stark.

Reflagging the Kuwaiti tankers and giving them Navy escorts is intended to protect the emirate’s oil shipments from Iranian attack. The first of the U.S.-registered Kuwaiti ships is expected to return to the gulf later this month.

Kuwait backs Iraq in the war, and ships owned by or trading with Kuwait have been prime Iranian targets since last September.

The U.S. Navy’s Middle East Force was established in 1949 after Saudi Arabia struck oil with the help of American companies.

Moving Farther North

Its original operations area ran from the Gulf of Oman through the Strait of Hormuz and halfway up the Persian Gulf to Ras Tanura, the major Saudi oil terminal.

As the force’s commitments broadened and the war on shipping by both Iran and Iraq developed, the warships moved farther north.

Ships of the U.S. fleet called in January at Kuwait, which borders Iraq at the head of the gulf. The Iranians were making threats at the time against the emirate, which was acting as host to a pan-Islamic summit conference that Iran boycotted.