Iran Starts Gulf ‘Martyrdom’ Maneuvers

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran announced Monday the start of naval maneuvers in the Persian Gulf even as a Kuwaiti tanker flying the American flag and escorted by American warships sailed past Iranian missile sites and safely left the perilous waterway.

Tehran radio said the maneuvers, code-named “Martyrdom” and beginning at midnight, will last for three days. The radio said that foreign shipping has been advised to stay out of Iranian territorial waters in the gulf and in the Gulf of Oman beyond the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow entrance to the gulf.

Taking part in the maneuvers are the naval forces of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, which have assembled a fleet of small speedboats capable of launching guerrilla attacks on civilian shipping in the Persian Gulf.

The ban on foreign shipping inside Iran’s 12-mile limit is not expected to have any practical effect, since most foreign vessels stay out of an Iranian-declared “exclusion zone” that divides the gulf in half.

Even in the Strait of Hormuz, which is only 24 miles wide at points, foreign shipping keeps to a deep-water channel in the south side of the waterway. The Iranians have prepared missile sites along the strait capable of launching Chinese-made Silkworm missiles, which have a range of 50 miles.

The Iranian announcement followed by hours the passage by U.S. warships of the second convoy of Kuwaiti shipping through the gulf.

On Monday morning, the 46,000-ton tanker Gas Prince, a Kuwaiti vessel re-registered in the United States three weeks ago, safely sailed through the strait on its way to Japan with a load of liquefied propane and butane gas. The Gas Prince was accompanied on its trip through the gulf by three U.S. warships. No incidents were reported.

A second reflagged Kuwaiti ship, the supertanker Bridgeton, was damaged by a mine a week ago Friday while making its maiden voyage as a U.S. ship. Despite the damage, it has been loaded with about 230,000 tons of crude oil--two-thirds of its normal capacity--for shipment to tankers waiting off the United Arab Emirates port of Khawr Fakkan.

After unloading the cargo, the Bridgeton will be repaired in dry dock in Dubai, the only facility in the region large enough to handle the supertanker. While the Bridgeton’s sailing date is not known, it is expected in Dubai by the end of the month.

The United States has announced that it is sending eight specially equipped helicopters to the region aboard the helicopter carrier Guadalcanal to take over the task of mine-hunting in the gulf after the Bridgeton explosion. It is believed that the Bridgeton will not set sail until the helicopters have begun to sweep for mines.

In Washington, the news agency Reuters quoted “defense officials” as saying the United States will also send up to half a dozen Vietnam War-vintage minesweeping boats to the gulf. The Navy amphibious ship Raleigh will load the 57-foot, wooden-hull boats at Charleston, S.C., this week and carry them to the gulf.