Death by Air

Iraq uses missiles and gas

Ever since last October, when the French delivered five Super Etendard fighter planes, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has been threatening to use the sophisticated weaponry to stop Iran from exporting oil from its Kharg Island terminal. That threat roused international concern. If Saddam Hussein proved as bad as his word, the war between Iraq and Iran might extend to other parts of the Persian Gulf and affect oil shipments of such Iraqi neighbors and benefactors as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Last week those fears came closer to facts. Baghdad sent the French planes into action, striking two ships. As it happened, neither was carrying Iranian oil, and both were under contract to Kuwaiti and Saudi oil companies.

The first word that Iraq had used the Super Etendards came in a military communique boasting that the planes had attacked "two naval targets" near Kharg Island. In fact, a low-flying missile fitting the description of a radar-controlled Exocet reportedly hit a 41,000-ton Greek tanker, Filikon L., that was more than 70 miles away from Kharg Island. The ship, under contract to the Kuwait Petroleum Corp., had just loaded up with fuel at the Kuwaiti port of Mina al Ahmadi. Damage proved relatively minor, but a second ship hit in the same attack was not so lucky. A South Korean supply vessel under contract to Aramco, the Saudi oil company, which was serving offshore rigs at the Saudi oilfields of Marjon, exploded, caught fire and sank. At least one crewman was killed and four others were injured.

Neither Kuwait nor Saudi Arabia, both of which have supplied Iraq with billions of dollars, made any public comment on the attacks last week. But Iraq seemed to have broken an agreement under which Baghdad would continue receiving aid for its war against Iran in return for not attacking Iranian oil shipments. Despite its poor performance, Iraq launched yet another attack two days later. This time four ships in a convoy sailing toward the Iranian port of Bandar Khomeini were hit. A 16,000-ton Greek freighter, lapetos, caught fire and had to be abandoned. When Iran sent two helicopters to rescue the crewmen, Iraq shot down the choppers. A senior Iranian military officer suggested that Iraq's attacks on small foreign ships were a calculated effort to bring international pressure to find a resolution to the four-year-old war. Said the officer: "Saddam Hussein doesn't want to do much damage for fear of alienating Washington and other foreign powers. But he wants to scare everybody into getting him peace."

In fact, Iraq had already introduced an even deadlier scare: the use of chemical warfare against Iran. Last month Washington publicly condemned the use of mustard gas by Iraq against Iranians. Last week U.S. officials said they have evidence that Iraq is using nerve gas on the battlefield. A West German firm, officials said, has supplied Iraq with laboratory equipment that can produce the nerve gas. The Administration embargoed five chemical compounds essential in producing the gas from being shipped to either Iraq or Iran, but officials concede that most of the compounds are available on the world market. A State Department spokesman denied reports that the U.S. or Israel might try to bomb the nerve-gas production sites. Yet both nations view the matter as perilous.

As a U.S. official put it, the danger is that once full-scale chemical war develops, "the genie is out of the bottle."

Iran, meanwhile, was preparing its long-delayed offensive in the southern coastal region. President Seyyed Ali Khamenei designated the new Iranian year, which began March 21, the Year of Final Victory. Acknowledging that the latest round of incidents was "ratcheting the war up a notch," a State Department official confessed that the U.S. continues to be frustrated in its efforts to get the two warring nations to talk peace.