Iran fired a long-range missile at Baghdad early today, killing a 'number of citizens' in a residential area, and Iraqi warplanes retaliated by bombing three Iranian cities and an oil refinery, an Iraqi military statement said.
The statement said the three cities were Khorramabad, Kuhdasht and Borujerd in western Iran and the oil refinery was in Isfahan in central Iran.
'Iraqi warplanes carried out devastating air attacks against three Iranian cities and an Iranian oil refinery in retaliation for Iranian attacks against civilian targets in Baghdad, Basra and Suleimaniyeh,' the Iraqi communique said.
The rocket, the eighth fired at Baghdad this year, continued 'the war of the cities' against civilian targets in which both fighter planes and missiles have been used during the past four weeks.
Both Tehran and Baghdad have stopped issuing figures of civilian casualties, but at last count about a week ago at least 1,800 had died in Iran and more than 500 in Iraq.
IRNA, the state-owned Iranian news agency, said the missile was fired at Baghdad in reprisal for 'barbarous acts of the Iraqi regime on Iranian residential areas.'
Only hours before, Iranian President Ali Khamenei warned that Tehran's forces would 'avenge' the deaths of 68 schoolgirls in the northwestern city of Minaeh. The Iraqi raid on two schools also injured 150 Sunday, IRNA said.
'A rocket fired by the rulers of Tehran fell on one of the residential neighborhoods of Baghdad at 6:15 a.m.,' Baghdad's INA news agency quoted a military spokesman as saying.
'A number of civilians were killed, others were wounded and a number of homes and shops were destroyed,' he said.
After an Iranian missile hit Baghdad on Saturday, Iraq responded with a wave of bombing raids on Iranian cities, killing 'scores' of people including the schoolgirls in Mianeh, by IRNA's account.
Iraqi warplanes carried out further attacks on Iranian cities early today, hitting Shiraz, Tabriz and Isfahan -- frequently bombed targets in the 'war of the cities.'
Iraqi planes also hit a 'large naval target near the Iranian shore,' the military spokesman said. Iraq uses the term to mean its jets hit a tanker used to carry Iranian crude, but there was no independent confirmation.
Over the past two days, reports from the Gulf said Iraqi jets fired missiles at three tankers near the Iranian shore, two owned by Iran and one registered in Cyprus. Iraq has hit scores of tankers in the Gulf since 1984 in a bid to cripple Iran's oil exports.
Meanwhile, the state-owned Libyan news agency reported today that Moammar Gadhafy has withdrawn his Gulf war peace initiative after the hostile response it received from Iran.
Gadhafi, in an intervew last week with the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Watan, described the 6 -year-old Persian Gulf war as 'senseless' and proposed the setting up of an Islamic force composed of troops from Algeria, Indonesia and Nigeria to separate the warring parties.
'The reaction to the peace initiative in the Iranian press was illogical, lacked revolutionary spirit, and contradicted the most basic diplomatic and political rules,' JANA said.
