WASHINGTON -- Iraq has recently begun using an air-launched version of the Chinese Silkworm missile against Iranian ships in attacks that have moved farther south in the Persian Gulf, Rear Adm. Ronald Eytchison said Wednesday.
'Iraq has recently employed the C-601 air-launched cruise missile, which is a derivative of the Chinese-produced Silkworm,' said the director of strategy and plans for the chief of naval operations.
Iraq has been using its Soviet-built Badger bombers to launch the anti-ship missile against vessels traveling to and from Iranian ports and oil export terminals, particulaly Kharg Island in the northern gulf, Eytchison said.
His comments were made during a briefing on the Persian Gulf given to the annual meeting of the Navy League, a private organization formed to support Navy goals and programs.
'In recent months, the Iraqis have extended their attacks much farther south into the gulf,' the admiral said, the latest move in the Iran-Iraq war that has lasted more than 7 years.
Disclosure of Iraqi's use of the C-101 is ironic because U.S. destroyers last October demolished an Iranian oil platform used as a base for patrol boats after an Iranian Silkworm surface-to-surface missile hit a U.S. flagged tanker anchored off Kuwait.
Iran's possession of the Silkworm also has resulted in considerable U.S. diplomatic pressure on China to stop export of the missile, which has a range of nearly 50 miles.
The authoritative London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies, in its 1988 Miltary Balance, shows Iraq as having a squadron of Badger bombers, but doesn't list either the Silkworm or C-601.
U.S. officials, however, have said China has delivered Silkworms to both Iran and Iraq.
Eytchison said Iraqi planes usually fly south along the western side of the gulf off Saudi Arabia before turning east to attack Iranian targets in the gulf. He criticized Iraq for not being careful enough in identifying ships before attacking them.
'Unlike Iraq, Iran typically conducts their attacks only after they have conducted careful reconnaissance and have a pretty good idea what the vessel is they're attacking,' the admiral said.
Last May 17, an Iraqi fighter aircraft accidently fired two Exocet missiles into the U.S. frigate Stark, killing 37 American sailors. Eytchison said there has been much work done to assure there will be no repetition of that incident.
The admiral said that in a recent seminar, Middle East experts from the academic world agreed that Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini regime appeared to be having difficulty getting new recruits for a new Iranian offensive against Iraq, which has been expected for some months.
Otherwise, there is no indication of any slackening of the war between the two nations, he said.
Eytchison said the Iran-Iraq war now ranks as one of the longest and costliest of the 20th century, with more than 1 million killed on both sides.
It has cost Iran an estimated $85 billion, or more than one year's total annual income, and Iraq about $80 billion, about twice its gross national product, he said.
