IRAQ REPORTS ATTACKS ON SUPERTANKER, OIL TARGETS
Iraq said its warplanes had attacked a
supertanker and four Iranian oil sites and vowed to keep up
such raids until the Gulf war ends.
    The surprise escalation of attacks on oil installations
broke more than a month-long lull in Iraqi air force action.
    It also followed celebrations yesterday of what Baghdad
hailed as Iran's failure to achieve victory during the Iranian
year which ended on Saturday.
    A high command communique said warplanes hit the western
jetty at Iran's Kharg island oil terminal in the afternoon and
struck a supertanker nearby at the same time.
    The Kharg terminal, attacked about 135 times since August
1985, was last raided in January.
    The communique did not identify the supertanker, but said
columns of smoke were seen billowing from it.
    In London, Lloyds insurance said the 162,046-ton Iranian
tanker Avaj was hit on Saturday, when Iraq reported an earlier
Gulf attack.
    But there has been no independent confirmation of today's
supertanker attack nor of other raids on shipping reported by
Baghdad in the past 24 hours.
    The last confirmed Iraqi attack took place on March 8, when
the Iranian tanker Khark-5 was hit south of Kharg.
    Iraqi warplanes also struck Iran's offshore oilfields at
Nowruz, Cyrus and Ardeshir in northern gulf, some 80 km (50
miles) west of Kharg island, today's communique said.
 Reuter
