KUWAIT -- Four other tankers besides the USS Bridgeton, damaged Friday by an explosion in the Persian Gulf, have struck submerged mines believed to have been planted by Iran.
The Soviet-flagged Marshal Chuikov was among the four ships that hit mines in May and June. The Soviet tanker was being escorted by a Soviet navy frigate when it hit the explosive device on May 16. The Soviets took no action against Iran, which is believed to have sown the gulf mines.
Three hours after Friday's incident, the U.S. convoy escorting the Bridgeton and the smaller tanker Gas King encountered a Soviet navy minesweeper accompanying two Soviet merchant ships heading south.
An American Navy captain warned the Soviet sailors of the mine danger zone.
'Thank you, American warship,' a Soviet naval officer replied.
The earlier mine explosions all occurred in the channel giving access to the main Kuwaiti oil terminal of Al-Ahmadi, 40 miles north of where Friday's incident occurred.
'That is the only known mine field in this area,' one Western diplomat in Kuwait said of the hazardous approach to Al-Ahmadi.
It is uncertain, he said, whether the mine struck by the Bridgeton was an isolated device or part of a network. 'Whether there is another mine field down the gulf remains to be seen.'
A mine-sweeper will probably have to be sent into the area to check for more mines, he said.
An 18-member team of U.S. Navy divers, working with Kuwaiti sailors and Saudi Arabian minesweepers, located and destroyed about 10 mines in Kuwait's main channel last Sunday, clearing it of explosives.
The 401,382-ton Bridgeton, flying the American flag and escorted by U.S. warships, hit the underwater mine about 120 miles southeast of Kuwait, in the gulf proper and to the southeast of the former channel minefield.
No injuries were reported in the 7 a.m. explosion 18 miles west of Iran's Farsi Island. The tanker was able to continue toward Kuwait.
The contact mines found in the channel were of an old Soviet design and weighed some 242 pounds, the diplomat said.
The four mine hits off the Kuwaiti coast since mid-May were:
-May 16, the 67,980-ton Soviet-flagged tanker Marshal Chuikov, which had been leased to Kuwait.
-May 27, the 276-424-ton Liberian-flagged tanker Primrose.
-June 10, the 274-629 ton Greek tanker Ethnic.
-June 19, The 273-408 ton Liberian-flagged tanker Stena Explorer.
All of the ships were able to make it to port following the explosions and no one was injured in the blasts.
The damage was not serious enough to sink the ships, but the four vessels had to be taken south to either Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates for repairs, because Kuwait has no major dry-dock facility.
