MANAMA, Bahrain -- A U.S.-operated supertanker hit a mine outside the Persian Gulf and a convoy of three re-flagged Kuwaiti tankers and their U.S. Navy escorts was delayed by another mine found in the gulf seaway entrance to Kuwait, shipping sources said.
The Texaco Caribbean, flying the Panamanian flag, was hit below its waterline and began leaking its cargo of Iranian oil about eight miles off the United Arab Emirates port of Fujairah in the first such incident outside the Persian Gulf during the tanker war between Iran and Iraq.
Shipping sources speculated an Iranian commando unit laid the mine at the nearby port of Khor Fakkhan, origination point of the convoy of Kuwaiti tankers and U.S. warships that set sail under cover of darkness Saturday and was delayed by today's disovery of the mine in the seaway entrance to Kuwait.
The sources said the mine that hit the Texaco tanker was probably intended for the U.S. convoy and instead driftedto Fujairah, in the Gulf of Oman just outside the Strait of Hormuz entrance to the Persian Gulf.
Iran recently completed four days of 'Operation Martyrdom' naval exercises in the gulf and boasted its fleet of high-speed gunboats was ready for suicide missions against U.S. ships.
The incident occurred in an area where tankers have not been attacked during the war between Iran and Iraq, now in its seventh year. It was sure to heighten tension in and around the gulf and to increase insurance premiums for gulf shipping.
Lloyds of London said the 125,857-ton Texaco Caribbean was hit at 2:42 p.m. after taking on a cargo of crude at Iran's makeshift floating oil terminal of Larak in the Strait of Hormuz and heading for Rotterdam.
The mine hit the vessel's No. 2 port tank and the ship was limping into port with a 4-yard-wide hole in the hull. There were no reports of injuries among the Italian crew.
The supertanker's commander, Capt. Luigi Parchi, relayed a distress signal.
'We've been hit. There is widespread pollution. We are trying to stop it,' he said.
The incident occurred only a few hours after an Iraqi air attack on the Iranian refinery of Tabriz and five Iranian oilfields and as the discovery of a mine in the Gulf delayed the three Kuwaiti tankers and their U.S. escorts.
Iranian leaders said last month they would attack Kuwaiti oil installations in the Persian Gulf if Iraq attacked Iranian oil installations again. Shipping sources said the Persian Gulf mine was found at the Khafji offshore oil field midway between Kuwait and the spot north of Farsi Island where the re-flagged supertanker Bridgeton hit a mine and sustained serious damage July 24.
The convoy of three tankers -- the Sea Isle City, Ocean City and Gas King -- anchored Sunday night off Saudi Arabia's main gulf oil terminal at Ras Tannurah to give the Navy time to check for more mines, the sources said.
All three ships were displaying the U.S. flag as part of President Reagan's plan to protect Kuwaiti shipping from threatened retaliatory attacks by Iran for supporting Iraq in the gulf war, which has been on for almost seven years.
The Khafji field is in the 'neutral zone' between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
Other shipping sources had said the convoy was considerably farther north and beyond Farsi Island, where Iran's Revolutionary Guards are based for hit-and-run attacks on shipping.
It was the second to enter the Persian Gulf since the United States last month began escorting Kuwaiti tankers re-flagged with the stars and stripes. The carrier Gas Prince left the gulf Tuesday.
An Iranian navy frigate shadowed the second convoy briefly off the United Arab Emirates late Saturday but kept its distance, American military officials said.
An officer on the Iranian warship, questioned over the radio by reporters from ABC News, said his vessel was on a routine patrol.
Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger confirmed Sunday that new mine-sweeping efforts in the gulf turned up 'mines that Iran possesses' but an Iranian official denied Tehran has targeted U.S. warships.
Weinberger, appearing on the CBS's 'Face the Nation,' also said U.S. allies are quietly suppporting U.S. activities in the gulf.
Iran's U.N. ambassador, preceding Weinberger on the program, said Iran laid mines in the gulf as 'part of our defensive line.' But Said Rajaie Khorassani said they were not planted in the path of the convoy.
In Iran, Prime Minister Mir Hussein Musavi said Sunday that mines will remain in the waterway 'as long as the superpowers intend to be present there.'
The 47,000-ton carrier Gas King, the 80,000-ton oil tanker Ocean City and the 81,000-ton tanker Sea Isle City in the second convoy can negotiate shallower waters easier than the deeper-draft 400,000-ton Bridgeton, sources said.
