Word: kharg
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Banner headlines in Iraqi newspapers last Friday proclaimed WE DESTROYED KHARG ISLAND. The papers reported a "massive blitz" by Iraqi planes against the terminal, one of the world's largest, through which flow 90% of Iran's crude-oil exports of 1.6 million bbl. a day. If indeed Iraq had destroyed the terminal, it would have been a turning point in the five-year-old gulf war. By late last week, however, oil-industry experts concluded that although Iraqi jets had managed to penetrate the heavily defended southeastern, landward side of the complex known as "T terminal," the strike would...
...same day, ironically, another display of air power sent a more chilling message to the region. For the 40th time in four months, Iraqi Mirage F1-S jets dropped a payload of bombs on Kharg Island, where Iran loads 85% of its oil onto tankers for export. The Iraqi pummeling closed Kharg for three days; on Friday, Iraq claimed that another attack had caused a fire at the facility. The assaults were part of a pattern of escalation in the five-year Iran-Iraq war that has already cost thousands of lives. By repeatedly attacking Kharg, the Iraqis hope...