Allies reportedly bomb southern Iraqi cities heavily

[RALPH JOSEPH]

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ATHENS, Greece (UPI) -- Coalition aircraft heavily bombed southern
Iraqi cities overnight and Sunday and several huge explosions were heard
across the border in Iran, the official Islamic Republic News Agency
said.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz flew to Moscow from Tehran, hours
after arriving at the Iranian border post of Khosravi. In Moscow, he was
expected to discuss Iraq's proposals for a withdrawal from Kuwait.
Aziz, accompanied by Iraqi Deputy Premier Saadoun Hammadi and other
officials, held 90 minutes of discussions at Tehran airport with Iranian
Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati. The talks focused on the gulf
crisis and Iraq's conditional offer to withdraw from Kuwait.
IRNA said black rain fell in Ilam province, bordering on Iraq, and
was caused by constant explosions in Iraqi oil installations across the
border.
The Iranians reported huge explosions in the southern Iraqi cities of
Faw, Basra and Abul Khasib, close to the Iranian border. The explosions
were so loud they jolted windows in Khorramshahr and Abadan, some 20 and
25 miles east of Basra.
The coalition bombing began about 8 p.m. Iranian time Saturday and
continued until the early hours of Sunday morning. The bombing raids
were resumed Sunday afternoon, Tehran radio said.
Aziz crossed into Iran at Khosravi, some 100 miles northeast of
Baghdad, apparently after journeying overland from the Iraqi capital to
the Iranian border, an IRNA report monitored in Athens said.
Before flying to Moscow aboard an Aeroflot aircraft, Aziz said if the
United States rejected Iraq's conditional offer to withdraw from Kuwait,
``we would have no alternative but to continue our struggle.''
Over the past two weeks, Iran and the Soviet Union have been involved
in peace initiatives in the Persian Gulf, and earlier reports suggested
Aziz may hold further discussions on the Iraqi proposals to withdraw
conditionally from Kuwait.
Tehran has recently become a transit point for dignitaries going to
and from Baghad. Officials arriving at Khosravi overland from Baghdad
are taken by helicopter to an airport at Bakhtaran, some 250 miles
southwest of Tehran.
Black rain, again reported in Iran on the weekend, polluted the
environment, water and agricultural resources in the region near the
Iraqi border, IRNA said.
Since the Persian Gulf war began a month ago, Iran has reported
several times that black rain in its border areas, after thick clouds of
black smoke drifted up from the war zone. The rain blackened streams and
lakes used for drinking water in the area, posing a health hazard to
people living near the war zone.
IRNA ssid another group of 320 war refugees arrived in Iraq Saturday,
bringing the total to 6,510 since the war started Jan. 17. Over the past
few days, IRNA said some 400 to 500 refugees a day have been crossing
into Iran.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has assisted Iran in
setting upcamps near the border to receive 100,000 refugees from Iraq,
but the Iraqi authorities are reportedly preventing their own citizens
from leaving the country.
Those allowed to leave were nationals of Sudan, Yemen, the
Philippines, India, Sri Lanka and other Asian and African countries. A
few Iraqis who did leave made their way through minefields along the
border and several were injured.
IRNA reporters in Iraq quoted the governor of the holy city of Najaf
as saying coalition aircraft bombed the city 300 times since the war
started, and 250 people were killed.
Several Iranian reporters were allowed into Iraq last week for the
first time in more than 10 years. The Iranian reporters did not confirm
earlier Iraqi claims that holy shrines in Najaf were bombed by coalition
planes.