The Tanker War and Iran Air Flight 655

The Tanker War was the campaign of attacks on merchant ships in the Persian Gulf during the Iran–Iraq War, which escalated sharply from 1984 and drew the United States Navy into direct clashes with Iran in 1987–88. It ended in tragedy on 3 July 1988, when the USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655, a civilian airliner, killing all 290 people on board.

Why the war moved to the sea

By 1984 the land war had settled into a stalemate (see the Iran–Iraq War, 1982–1986). Iraq’s own oil exports through the Gulf had been cut early in the war, and it sent its oil through pipelines across Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Iran, by contrast, depended on tankers loading at Kharg Island, its main oil terminal, to pay for the war. Iraq reasoned that by attacking Iranian oil exports it could starve Iran of money and, perhaps, provoke Iran into actions that would bring the great powers in against it.

Iraq had attacked shipping near Iranian ports since 1981, but in 1984, with French-supplied Super Étendard aircraft and Exocet anti-ship missiles, it began striking tankers at and around Kharg on a large scale. Iran answered by attacking ships trading with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, which were financing Iraq’s war effort. Iran used aircraft, then speedboats of the Revolutionary Guards navy armed with rockets and machine guns, and later sea mines.

Kuwait asks for protection

Kuwaiti tankers were among Iran’s main targets. In late 1986 Kuwait asked both the Soviet Union and the United States to protect its ships. The Reagan administration, partly to keep the Soviets out of the Gulf and partly to repair its standing with Arab states after the Iran–Contra affair had become public, agreed to put eleven Kuwaiti tankers under the American flag and escort them with warships. The operation, called Earnest Will, began in July 1987 and became the largest US naval convoy operation since the Second World War.

The first convoy ran into trouble at once: on 24 July 1987 the reflagged supertanker Bridgeton struck an Iranian mine. Two months earlier, on 17 May, an Iraqi aircraft had fired two Exocet missiles into the US frigate Stark, killing 37 American sailors. Iraq called it a mistake and apologised, and the United States accepted the explanation, which deepened Iranian suspicions that Washington had taken Iraq’s side.

Direct clashes between Iran and the United States

From the second half of 1987 Iranian and American forces fought a series of short, sharp battles at sea. In September 1987 US helicopters attacked the Iranian ship Iran Ajr as it laid mines, and the ship was captured. In October, after an Iranian missile struck a reflagged tanker off Kuwait, US warships shelled Iranian oil platforms in Operation Nimble Archer.

On 14 April 1988 the US frigate Samuel B. Roberts was badly damaged by an Iranian mine. Four days later, on 18 April, the US Navy launched Operation Praying Mantis, its largest surface battle since 1945. American forces destroyed two Iranian oil platforms, sank the frigate Sahand and the missile boat Joshan, and damaged the frigate Sabalan. Dozens of Iranian sailors were killed. On the same day Iraq retook the Fao peninsula, and many Iranians concluded that the United States and Iraq were now acting together.

1. 1984 Iraq escalates attacks on tankers at Kharg Island; Iran retaliates against Gulf Arab shipping
2. 17 May 1987 Iraqi missiles strike USS Stark, killing 37
3. July 1987 Operation Earnest Will begins; Bridgeton hits a mine
4. September 1987 US forces capture the minelayer Iran Ajr
5. 14 April 1988 USS Samuel B. Roberts hits a mine
6. 18 April 1988 Operation Praying Mantis
7. 3 July 1988 USS Vincennes shoots down Iran Air Flight 655
8. 18 July 1988 Iran accepts UN Resolution 598

Iran Air Flight 655

On the morning of 3 July 1988 the cruiser USS Vincennes was in action against Iranian gunboats in the Strait of Hormuz and had entered Iranian territorial waters. Shortly after ten in the morning Iran Air Flight 655, an Airbus A300 on its regular 28-minute route from Bandar Abbas to Dubai, took off from Bandar Abbas, which served both civilian and military aircraft. The crew of the Vincennes identified the airliner as an attacking Iranian F-14 fighter and fired two surface-to-air missiles. All 290 people on board, 274 passengers and 16 crew, were killed, among them 66 children.

The United States called the shooting a tragic accident, caused by the stress of combat and errors in reading the ship’s radar data. Investigations later found that the aircraft had been climbing within its civilian air corridor and transmitting a civilian signal, and that the Vincennes was inside Iranian waters at the time. Its captain, Will Rogers III, was not disciplined and later received a routine service award for his tour of duty, which caused lasting anger in Iran. Iran called the shooting a deliberate crime and took the case to the International Court of Justice. In 1996 the two governments settled: the United States paid US$61.8 million to the families of the victims on an ex gratia basis, without admitting legal responsibility.

How the Tanker War ended and how it is remembered

The clashes at sea, the loss of Fao and other ground in the spring of 1988, Iraqi missile attacks on Tehran, and the shooting down of Flight 655 all weighed on Iran’s leaders. Two weeks later, on 18 July 1988, Iran accepted UN Security Council Resolution 598, and a ceasefire took effect on 20 August (see the end of the Iran–Iraq War). Rafsanjani, then acting commander-in-chief, argued that Iran could not fight both Iraq and the United States.

Many historians, Pierre Razoux among them, see the Tanker War as the point at which the United States moved from tilting towards Iraq to fighting Iran directly. In Iran, the destruction of Flight 655 is remembered every 3 July with ceremonies at sea off Bandar Abbas, and is cited by officials as proof of American hostility. In 2003 the International Court of Justice ruled on Iran’s separate claim over the oil platforms, finding that the US attacks could not be justified as self-defence but rejecting Iran’s claim for reparation. The page Iran and the United States places these events in the longer relationship.