Iran Hits Tanker Near Big U.S. Convoy in Gulf

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates —  A Japanese-owned tanker was attacked by an Iranian gunboat Wednesday less than 40 miles from where four U.S. warships were escorting a mixed convoy of American and Kuwaiti ships up the Persian Gulf.

Iraqi jet fighters reportedly also hit tankers off the Iranian coast, and shipping sources said they feared that the attacks signaled a resumption of the so-called tanker war in the gulf after the end of an Arab League summit in Amman, Jordan.

The meeting ended Wednesday with a strong condemnation of Iran for rejecting a U.N. plan to end the seven-year-old war and for its recent missile attacks against Kuwaiti territory.

New Attacks Expected

Despite two Iraqi air strikes against Iran-bound shipping earlier in the week, Iran had refrained from attacking neutral shipping while the four-day summit was under way. “But now I think we’ll see a new wave of Iranian attacks,” a gulf-based shipping executive said. “It will be their way of replying to the summit.”

The Iranian attack Wednesday on the Liquid Bulk Explorer, a Japanese-owned chemical tanker flying the Panamanian flag, occurred near the Iranian-held island of Abu Musa at the southern end of the gulf.

An officer aboard the ship said an Iranian gunboat fired four “rockets” at the 12,964-ton tanker, hitting it in the port side and causing a fire that was later extinguished. There were no casualties, he added.

Largest Convoy in Gulf

The attack occurred 36 miles east of the Rentz, a guided-missile frigate bringing up the rear of a Kuwait-bound convoy that entered the gulf earlier in the day. It was the largest such convoy yet to transit the gulf.

Shipping sources said that another nearby vessel radioed word of the attack to the Rentz but that the U.S. warship could not intervene because the Liquid Bulk Explorer was not flying the American flag.

Under the rules of engagement governing the operations of U.S. forces in the gulf, the Navy can respond only to attacks on U.S. ships or on the 11 Kuwaiti tankers re-registered to sail under the American flag.

17th U.S.-Escorted Convoy

The 12-ship flotilla moving up the gulf Wednesday was the 17th U.S.-escorted convoy since the “re-flagging” operations began last July.

It included two minesweeping tugboats, four warships, three re-flagged Kuwaiti tankers, two American merchant ships and one Bahraini-flagged cargo ship sailing under a special “protected vessel” status because it was carrying U.S. military equipment to Bahrain, U.S. sources said.