MANAMA, Bahrain -- Authorities have arrested four men and held 20 others for questioning on suspicion of trying to blow up a U.S.-built oil refinery near the southern Bahraini town of Awali, a U.S. Navy source said Thursday.
At the same time, three U.S. warships safely shepherded the U.S.-flagged Kuwaiti supertanker Bridgeton through the Persian Gulf and to Kuwaiti waters, completing the Navy's 22nd convoy since July.
The Bridgeton cast doubt on the Navy's ability to escort reflagged Kuwaiti vessels when it struck a mine on its maiden voyage July 24. The latest convoy was the first for the Bridgeton since its mine-damaged hull was repaired.
The guided missile frigates Ford, Thach and Elrod escorted the Bridgeton and the U.S.-flagged Kuwaiti oil products carrier Surf City to the edge of Kuwaiti waters, a U.S. Central Command spokesman said.
In Kuwait, the newspaper Al Siyassah said Egypt will reinforce the armies of six oil states that belong to the Gulf Cooperation Council with more than 10,000 troops in return for assistance with its military debt.
There was no immediate comment from Egypt, which previously denied similar reports.
'The council states will pay about $4.5 billion of Egypt's military debts during three years in return for military assistance to the GCC states,' the newspaper said, quoting diplomatic sources in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh and London.
Al Siyassah said the agreement was brokered by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah of during a recent visit to Egypt.
The Navy source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the four men arrested in the suspected sabotage plot were thought to be Iranians who sneaked onto Bahrain, an island. The other 20 were Bahraini nationals suspected of possible connections with the four, he said.
An army patrol apparently arrested the four Dec. 22 while they allegedly tried to plant explosives at the Bahrain Petroleum Co. refinery near Awali, an oil town 12 miles from Manama on the southern half of the island, the source said.
Western oilmen said security recently was tightened at the installation after an employee of the Bahraini company was arrested on suspicion of plotting sabotage.
The refinery is run jointly by the Bahrain Petroleum Co. and the U.S. oil concern Caltex.
The Bahrain Petroleum Co. is owned by the Bahrain National Oil Co., which was set up in 1976, a year after the government acquired 60 percent of the island's oil and gas installations.
Caltex, a Canadian-registered but U.S.-operated concern jointly owned by Standard Oil Co. of California and Texaco, originally built the refinery and retains a 40 percent interest in the island's oil and gas installations and related production.
The Navy source said authorities had informed U.S. military official in the Persian Gulf about the incident, which is among the most serious on the island since a clumsy coup attempt by Iranian-backed radicals against the emir, Sheikh Isa Bin-Sulman al-Khalifa, failed in 1981.
The Navy maintains a small refueling facility at the island that is crucial to its gulf operations.
The incident apparently was intended to coincide with the opening four days later of a summit of the heads of state of the GCC, which groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in a loose defense and economic alliance.
The GCC agreed on further military cooperation to protect its members from a spillover of the Iran-Iraq war. The resolution came at the conclusion of a council summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
