Word: straits
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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After a silence of two days, Washington reluctantly acknowledged that a Navy fighter had fired a pair of Sparrow missiles at an approaching Iranian jet over the Strait of Hormuz. The targeted plane veered away at the last moment and was not harmed, but the episode illustrated the high state of American readiness to respond to any attacks in the area. In the waters below, American warships led three more reflagged tankers to Kuwait, bringing the total to five since the escort operation began last month. Meanwhile, Iraq broke a 25-day pause in its air strikes against Iran, which...
Iran remained relatively calm following a fit of frenzy two weeks ago. After blaming the U.S. for riots that killed nearly 300 Iranian pilgrims in Mecca, Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini launched four days of war games in the strait and loudly promised to settle the score. Late last week an explosion at an Aramco gas plant on the Saudi Arabian coast raised fears that Iran was stepping up its campaign of terrorist subversion against its gulf neighbors. Some 20 workers were killed. Earlier, Iranian officials paid lip service to a United Nations Security Council resolution that called...
...since Khomeini took power in 1979. The incident occurred while a U.S. P-3 Orion reconnaissance plane and two F-14 Tomcat fighters were flying over the Persian Gulf toward Oman. Suddenly two aging F-4 Phantom jets rose up from Iran's Bandar Abbas air base, near the Strait of Hormuz, and streaked toward the American planes. The Iranians kept coming even after two more Tomcats swept down from a higher altitude and tried to warn them off by radio. One of the Tomcat pilots ordered his weapons officer to open fire once the Phantoms approached within 20 miles...
...sending four mine hunters to join the three-warship Armilla Patrol that has escorted British tankers in the region for the past six years. Defense Secretary George Younger, however, insisted that the vessels would be used only to protect British ships in the Gulf of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz...
...side of the war, Iran is seeking ways of bypassing its / embattled terminal at Kharg Island. Despite the project's estimated cost of $2 billion, Tehran says it is building a 1.5 million-bbl. line from its oil fields in southern Iran to the port of Jask, outside the Strait of Hormuz. Iran also announced last week a tentative agreement with the Soviet Union to ship oil to the Black Sea through a converted gas pipeline that has not been in use since...