Harbor Closed as Mine Search Continues

MANAMA, Bahrain--Harbor officials closed part of an anchorage yesterday where six mines were found and crews from four nations searched for more in the busy facility off Fujairah, Just south of the Persian Gulf.

Earlier in the day, a Saudi Arabian coast guard vessel hit a mine in the northern end of the Persian Gulf and two crewmen were injured slightly, Saudi police said.

The anchorage off Fujairah was considered a safe haven from the seven-year-old war between Iran and Iraq until the U.S-operated supertanker Texaco Caribbean hit a mine Monday in the 35-square mile area.

Six more have been found since. They are the "spiked globe" type that explode on contact, and several shipping executives said they believe the mines were free-floating rather than tethered.

Iran has been accused of laying the mines but claims the United States is to blame and has offered to help in the search.

A dispatch from Iran's official news agency quoted a naval commander as saying his ships would start minesweeping operations today, in international waters not specified, but would not work in the Fujairah area without permission.

The Saudi coast guard ship hit a mine 10 to 20 miles off the village of Khafji, more than 550 miles northwest of the Fujairah anchorage, according to a police officer contacted by telephone in Khafji.

The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, declined to give further details.

The mine was about 50 miles southeast of Kuwait's Al-Ahmadi oil terminal, loading point for U.S. escorted Kuwaiti tankers.

Shipping sources said the United Arab Emirates declared a "danger zone" in the affected part of its anchorage 30 miles south of the gulf, where tankers transship oil and ships take on supplies. It also has been used to assemble convoys for trips up the gulf by Kuwaiti tankers flying American flags and escorted by U.S. warships.

The American oil companies Mobil and Chevron told their tankers to avoid the anchorage, where 50 or more ships often can be found at once, and to stay at least 25 miles from shore. The closed area extends seven miles off the coast of Fujairah, one of seven sheikdoms that make up the Emirates, and five along it.

Executives of shipping companies said the average number of ships near the Strait of Hormuz, the southern entrance to the Persian Gulf, was down more than half to about 20 since the mine scare began.

Pentagon officials said the USS Guadalcanal, a helicopter carrier equipped with eight minesweeping Sea Stallions, would not arrive in the region for another week. Six minesweeping ships from Britain and France are due in several weeks.

At the head of the gulf, Kuwaiti tankers flying the American flag were loading cargoes at Al-Ahmadi in preparation for the trip south under U.S. Navy escort.

Shipping sources said they expect the 81,283-ton Sea Isle City, 79,999 ton Ocean City and 46,723-ton Gas King to be joined by the Bridgeton. The 401,382-ton tanker hit a mine July 24, near a fortified Iranian island, on the first voyage up the gulf by empty Kuwaiti vessels under American protection.

Eleven of Kuwait's 21 tankers are being registered as American vessels so they can be given Navy protection. Kuwait also charters tankers flying the Soviet and British flags in its attempt to evade attacks Iran began last September on vessels owned by or serving the emirate.

Iran accuses Kuwait of receiving arms shipments for Iraq, its eastern neighbor at the northern end of the gulf. Iraq's ports were closed soon after the war began in September 1980.

Coast guard patrols in Fujairah ordered ships away from the 35-square-mile area after an Arab vessel reported sighting the sixth mine early yesterday.

Naval units of the two southern gulf countries, the United Arab Emirates and Oman, were searching for mines and the U.S. Navy was said to be helping farther from shore. A well-placed source in Saudi Arabia said its minesweepers also were in the area.

In Washington, the Pentagon said Iran probably planted the mines.

"We believe that it is quite likely, in fact almost certainly, the Iranians who left those mines there, presumably in hopes of placing them in front of our most recent tanker-escort group," said chief spokesman Robert Sims.