U.S. F-14 Jet Fires Missile

WASHINGTON--A. U.S. Navy F-14 jet fighter fired a missile over the weekend at a suspected Iranian jet fighter that appeared to be making "hostile moves" toward an American surveillance plane, administration sources said yesterday.

The sources, who demanded anonymity, said the incident occurred over the weekend shortly after U.S. Navy warships began escorting a group of three Kuwaiti oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz into the Perslan Gulf.

The sources refused to be more specific about when the incident occurred or to say where it occurred.

They agreed, however, that it did not appear that the missile fired by the Navy jet had struck anything.

According to the sources, Navy jet fighters attached to the aircraft carrier Constellation were already in the air when a Navy P-3 Orion surveillance plane reported that its radar indicated it was being approached by several airplanes.

The sources said the Navy F-14s were immediately sent to the area and "it appeared that the targets were threatening the P-3," said one official.

One of the F-14s subsequently fired a missile, "but there's no evidence anything was hit," the official said.

The sources said they didn't know if the planes spotted by the P-3 had been visually identified at any point. But one official said it appeared the planes had been monitored taking off from the Iranian naval base at Bandar Abbas on the coast of the Strait of Hormuz.