MINE STRIKES U.S.-FLAG TANKER IN FIRST GULF CONVOY

KUWAIT, 1987-07-24. — A Kuwaiti tanker newly placed under the American flag struck a mine in the Persian Gulf today while sailing under United States naval escort, dealing an immediate blow to Washington’s undertaking to protect merchant shipping against the dangers of the Iran–Iraq war. The Bridgeton, one of two vessels in the first convoy of the American escort operation, was damaged but remained afloat and continued towards Kuwait under her own power. No casualties were reported. The explosion occurred near Iran’s Farsi Island, well inside the Gulf, after the convoy had already passed through the Strait of Hormuz.

The Bridgeton was proceeding with the gas carrier Gas Prince under the protection of the guided-missile cruiser Fox, the guided-missile destroyer Kidd and the frigate Crommelin. The explosion beneath the tanker exposed a danger against which the conspicuous presence of these heavily armed escorts offered little immediate defence. After the strike, the warships followed in the tanker’s wake, using the passage of the much larger merchant vessel as a measure of protection against further mines. The reversal was striking: the ship being guarded had become the vessel opening a path for her guards.

The damaged tanker, formerly the Al-Rekkah, is among the Kuwaiti merchant ships being transferred to American registry under an agreement intended to preserve their access to Gulf ports. The arrangement covers eleven vessels. With American names, flags and registration, they are to receive the protection Washington accords its own shipping. Today’s passage was therefore more than another voyage through a dangerous sea. It was the first practical demonstration of an undertaking publicly defended by the Reagan Administration as necessary both to the security of friendly Gulf states and to the continued movement of international commerce.

The mine’s origin was not independently established by the explosion itself. Its position near Farsi Island, where Iran maintains a naval presence, inevitably directs attention towards Tehran, which has opposed the American escort undertaking. Nevertheless, the distinction between suspicion and proof remains important. A mine does not announce its nationality when it detonates, and responsibility for this strike cannot safely be inferred merely from its location. Whatever its ownership, the weapon has demonstrated that an adversary need not challenge an American cruiser openly to interrupt, damage or embarrass an operation conducted under the American flag.

The escort programme, known as Operation Earnest Will, has grown out of Kuwait’s increasingly exposed position in the war. Kuwait has supported Iraq, while Iranian attacks on shipping serving Kuwait have carried the conflict into the commercial approaches of states not formally at war. Iraq, for its part, has attacked Iran’s oil trade. Merchant vessels and their crews consequently face dangers arising from the belligerents’ efforts to injure one another’s revenues and foreign support. Washington presents its intervention in the language of “freedom of navigation” and the protection of “neutral shipping,” principles now confronting the practical difficulty of an uncleared sea lane.

The military problem disclosed today is not simply a shortage of firepower. The convoy’s escorts can watch for aircraft, missiles and approaching boats, but a submerged mine presents a different task. Detecting and removing such weapons calls for specialised equipment, suitable vessels, time and painstaking examination of the water ahead. The Bridgeton’s size and construction helped her survive this explosion; a similar blast beneath a smaller warship could have produced a different result. The spectacle of the escorts taking station behind the damaged tanker will therefore sharpen questions about whether the means assembled for the operation match the hazards it must meet.

For Kuwait, the American agreement is an attempt to prevent its merchant fleet from becoming an easy means of exerting pressure upon the country. Its appeal for outside protection has also involved the Soviet Union, bringing the rivalry of the great powers more directly into the Gulf’s shipping affairs. Washington has been unwilling to leave Moscow alone in answering the request. Yet the presence of foreign flags does not remove the geographical facts. Ships bound for Kuwait must still traverse a long and confined waterway, pass areas within reach of Iranian forces, and approach ports close to the northern theatre of the war.

In Washington, the incident gives fresh substance to the congressional argument over the risks of the escort policy and the respective responsibilities of the President and Congress. Critics have questioned whether the undertaking could draw American forces into sustained hostilities without an adequate reckoning of the consequences. The Administration maintains that protecting navigation is not the same thing as entering the war on Iraq’s side. Today’s mine strike does not by itself settle that dispute. It does, however, make the next questions immediate: what precautions are required before another convoy sails, and what response would follow an attack causing American deaths?

For shipowners, insurers and oil traders, the important distinction is between the survival of one tanker and the security of the route as a whole. The Bridgeton’s continued movement means that this explosion has not destroyed the convoy or closed the Gulf. It does not establish that the waters ahead are safe. An uncertain mine threat can impose delays, alter sailing arrangements and complicate insurance even when no vessel is sunk. No sweeping conclusion about oil supplies can yet be justified from today’s damage alone, but the episode shows how a comparatively inconspicuous weapon can impose costs on a heavily protected commercial passage.

The attack comes only four days after the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 598, calling for a cease-fire in the Iran–Iraq war and the withdrawal of forces to internationally recognised boundaries. That diplomatic initiative offers a route away from the widening struggle at sea, but it has not yet brought the fighting to an end. For the moment, the Bridgeton is proceeding towards Kuwait, damaged but afloat, while the American escort mission faces its first serious test. The immediate task is to bring the merchant ships through. Beyond that lies the harder question of how a continuing service can be maintained through waters where the next danger may remain invisible until it explodes.