The World - News from Feb. 3, 1988

A missile-firing jet fighter, believed to be an Iranian F-4 Phantom, attacked a Liberian-flag tanker in Iran’s first such aerial raid on shipping in more than two years, according to Persian Gulf sources. The warplane fired two missiles at the 39,008-ton Petrobulk Pilot, maritime salvage executives said, but both missed. The Iranians, whose air force consists mainly of aging Phantoms and other U.S.-built aircraft from the days of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, have depended on speedboats to raid neutral commercial shipping recently. Iran also apparently had run out of air-launched missiles, but shipping agents said last fall that it had acquired some U.S.-made air-to-sea Maverick missiles. The shipping agents did not say where the missiles were acquired.