An angry President Reagan vowed Monday that the United States would keep the Persian Gulf open to world shipping despite an unprovoked Iraqi air strike on a U.S. frigate that left at least 28 American sailors dead and 21 injured. Reagan said Sunday`s surprise attack against the guided missile frigate Stark would not deter the United States from protecting its allies in the region but would cause the U.S. and its allies to ”redouble” efforts to find a peaceful end to the Iran-Iraq war.
White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said the USS Stark was hit by two French-made Exocet air-to-surface missiles, apparently fired by a single Iraqi fighter plane and not two planes, as earlier reported by the Pentagon.
Pentagon officials said the missiles were fired at night from about 12 miles away, meaning the pilot probably never saw his target except on a radar screen. Fitzwater said the United States considered the attack
”inadvertent.”
Reagan ordered an emergency high-level meeting of his National Security Council to discuss the attack and chart U.S. options. White House officials stressed that no U.S. military retaliation was likely.
The air strike marked the first attack against U.S. military or commercial shipping in the gulf since the U.S. first maintained a regular naval presence in the waterway in 1949. The incident was also the deadliest attack against a Western vessel in the gulf since the onset of the nearly 7-year-old war between Iran and Iraq.
”I know and I share the sense of concern and anger that Americans feel over yesterday`s tragedy in the Persian Gulf,” Reagan said after a Rose Garden ceremony marking World Trade Week. ”We are protesting this attack in the strongest terms and are investigating the circumstances of the incident.” Reagan`s remarks came amid reports the Stark`s Phalanx antimissile defense system may have been turned off at the time of the rocket attack.
The Phalanx is capable of defending against Exocet missiles, but the Navy`s rules of engagement permit the defensive system to be turned on during patrols in the volatile gulf only when a ship`s commander determines that his vessel may come under attack.
Pentagon officials said they were not certain whether the Phalanx system was operational at the time of the air strike, but they said the Stark carried other antiaircraft weapons that should have enabled it to defend against an Exocet attack.
The Stark apparently tried to establish radio contact with the attacking plane before the attack, sending two warnings that it was a U.S. Navy vessel, Pentagon officials said.
It was unclear whether the Iraqi pilot received the messages. The missiles hit about one minute after the radio transmissions.
Fitzwater said: ”We did not return fire. I don`t know why.”
Pentagon officials confirmed the death count had risen to 28 and said two other crew members were being treated in Bahrain for severe burns suffered in the attack. A Saudi Arabian navy vessel and another U.S. warship rescued five crew members from the water after the attack, officials said.
The Stark, whose home port is at Jacksonville, Fla., was on a routine forward patrol in the gulf about 85 miles northwest of the island of Bahrain at the time of the attack, officials said. The frigate was evacuated Sunday night and Navy personnel were still fighting fires on the ship Monday afternoon.
For the second straight day, Iraqi Ambassador Nizar Hamdoon was summoned to the State Department, where he received an official U.S. diplomatic protest and met with Undersecretary of State Michael Armacost and Assistant Secretary Richard Murphy.
Afterward, Hamdoon said Iraq is still not convinced one of its planes is responsible for the attack, and he noted that Iraqi warplanes have often struck against Iranian shipping in the same area.
But Hamdoon said that if the Baghdad regime proves to have been responsible for the attack, ”we will be courageous enough to announce it and to express our apology.”
He said he used the State Department meeting to stress that his government, at the least, did not intend to strike against the United States. ”We tried to make clear to the administration that Iraq has no interest whatsoever to attack American ships and our targets are usually the Iranian ships,” Hamdoon told reporters.
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But State Department spokesman Charles Redman said the attacking plane was positively identified as an Iraqi fighter by U.S. AWACS surveillance planes in Saudi Arabia. Redman said the U.S. expects ”an immediate response” to its protests from Iraq.
Fitzwater said the attack would have ”no impact” on negotiations with Kuwait that are expected to result in U.S. naval escorts for Kuwaiti oil tankers in the gulf. In recent weeks, Kuwait has requested that the U.S. and the Soviet Union provide naval escorts for its commercial vessels. The request came after Kuwaiti tankers were attacked by Iranian warplanes.
Reagan did not specifically refer to Kuwait in his remarks, but he pledged the Iraqi missile attack would not affect U.S. policy in the region.
”We remain deeply committed to supporting the self-defense of our friends in the gulf and to ensuring the free flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz,” Reagan said.
The President said he would address the American people after all the facts of the attack are determined. White House officials said the speech could come later this week.
Reagan pointedly thanked Saudi Arabia and Bahrain for their help in rescue efforts after the attack, and he delivered a tribute to the young Americans killed in the latest outburst of violence in the Middle East.
”The mission of the men of the USS Stark, safeguarding the interests of the United States and the free world in the gulf, remains crucial to our national security and to the security of our friends throughout the world,”
Reagan said.
”The hazards to our men and women in uniform in the defense of freedom can never be understated. The officers and crew of the USS Stark deserve our highest admiration and appreciation.”
The President said Sunday`s attack ”underscores the need to bring the Iran-Iraq war to the promptest possible end.”
”We and the rest of the international community must redouble our diplomatic efforts to hasten a settlement that will preserve the sovereignty and territorial integrity of both Iran and Iraq,” Reagan said.